Oak Tyres has expanded into a new larger head office and warehousing complex in Haydock, Merseyside following recent growth. According to Oak’s finance director Andrew Burgess, the company’s 2010 accounts record annual sales of just over £30 million, a figure that has now grown to £50 million a year.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries reports that its 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Sumitomo Rubber (Thailand), held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new agricultural tyre factory in Thailand on 2 August. The plant, which is currently under construction in the Amata City Industrial Estate, Rayong Province, will be Sumitomo’s first agricultural tyre factory outside of Japan. It is being set up with a total investment of some 10 billion yen (£80 million) and is scheduled to enter production in May 2014. The 130,000 square metre facility should produce around 50,000 tyres a month by the end of 2017.
During an interview with a Brazilian publication, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery expressed his frustration at the lack of cooperation Formula One teams have provided the tyre maker. Hembery told TotalRace that the small operating window of this season’s tyres could have been avoided had the teams agreed to give Pirelli use of a current race vehicle for testing.
On 16 July, Ford presented Hofmann Power Weight with its Q1 Award in recognition of the quality of the balance weights supplied to Ford and the reliability of Hofmann’s delivery. The Q1 Award is the highest designation Ford gives its suppliers, and is awarded solely to suppliers who satisfy the car manufacturer’s strict requirements in terms of quality, on-time delivery and material management, whilst at the same time achieving a high technical standard.
The number of fatal accidents involving drink drivers last year rose by 18 per cent, from 220 in 2010 to 260 in 2011, according to figures published by the Department for Transport. In the same period, the number of people killed in drink drive accidents increased by 12 per cent, from 250 to 280. This means that 15 per cent of all fatalities in road accidents involved drink driving.
With just three months to go before the mandatory implementation of labelling in November 2012, there are still many questions to answer about exactly who will be enforcing the law and what the penalties will be.
Visitors to the Kings Road Tyres (KRT) stand at Brityrex will be able to view a broad range of brands covering applications for truck, bus, agricultural, OTR and industrial fitments – a portfolio the company has built up on the back of four decades’ involvement in the wholesale sector and productive, long-term distribution relationships developed with some of the world’s leading tyre makers. KRT says it will use Brityrex as a focus to promote a number of its exclusive brands, including Matador and Aeolus truck tyres, the Taurus agricultural range and the latest AT/3 and S/T MAXX patterns in its Cooper 4×4 line-up. During the show the company will also launch a new, as yet undisclosed, agricultural tyre that will supplement its already extensive portfolio in this sector.
A formal opening ceremony for Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Pulandian plant in China was held on 15 August. Around 700 guests attended the celebration, including government officials and president of Goodyear’s Asia Pacific business, Dan Smytka. During a speech, company chairman and CEO Richard Kramer declared the factory’s commissioning to be of “extraordinary significance” to Goodyear.
On 26 September, the US tariff on Chinese-manufactured consumer tyres is scheduled to end. On that day it’ll be exactly three years since a 35 per cent duty was slapped upon all such tyres imported from China; this was reduced to 30 per cent in 2010 and for the past 12 months US consumers have paid a 25 per cent duty on Chinese passenger car and light truck tyres. The tariff received a mixed welcome – the Tire Industry Association referred to it in 2009 as “a politically motivated decision that will end up costing more jobs than it saves” while the United Steelworkers union praised Barack Obama as being “a President with the guts to enforce trade laws.” Either way, in little over a month the tyre tariff will be history.
Mobile tyre fitting service TyresontheDrive.com, a business established last year by former Michelin manager Dominic Clark, is said to be growing at a rate of 20 per cent per month. To support its expansion plans, the company is now integrating the tyre industry dedicated Cameo, Workshop Scheduler and MIDaS technologies from Cam Systems into its existing bespoke systems; according to Cam Systems these new additions will provide a more structured and stable back office that will deliver immediate efficiencies and time-saving benefits.
No, Continental’s Herbert Mensching and Dr. Frank Walloch cannot conceive that a tyre maker could solely focus its development on label-related areas just to achieve sales through high ratings. The two men, respectively managing director sales and marketing at Continental’s Commercial Vehicle Tires unit and director of product development for commercial vehicle tyres in the EMEA region, believe a one-sided preference for specific development priorities will evaporate after around nine months at the very latest, as professional truck tyre users are competent at evaluating these products. Instead of placing a focus on criteria such as wet braking or rolling resistance, what is of key importance for commercial vehicle tyres, most likely more than in the passenger car tyre segment, is balanced product development in which other criteria – such as mileage and retreadability – will rank high on the list of priorities.
Yokohama Tire has taken part in a uniquely American promotion that ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records. The tyre maker sponsors the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, and at a game against a team from Texas in early June the team handed out Yokohama-branded cowboy hats to fans. During the fifth inning, the 39,013 fans in attendance were certified as the “largest gathering of people wearing cowboy hats,” topping the old Guinness record of 500.
Xiaorong Wang, the man accused of stealing confidential information from Bridgestone, has been charged by a US District Court with eight counts of theft of trade secrets and seven counts of making false statements to federal agents. Cleveland-based WOIO-TV reports that the indictment returned by federal grand jury alleges that Wang stole information on projects, formulas and other confidential matters from Bridgestone's Akron, Ohio, technical centre in April 2010. The false statements Wang allegedly told FBI investigators focus on Wang's intention to accept employment at Suzhou University in China to establish a rheology polymer centre, WOIO-TV added.
India’s Govind Rubber Ltd has reported net sales of Rs 782.3 million (£8.9 million) for the three months to 30 June, a 35.6 per cent year-on-year increase. Net profit, at Rs 10.1 million (£), was up 248 per cent on the corresponding quarter of 2011. The tyre maker recently announced an Rs 8.5 billion (£115,500) expansion project at its Alwar plant in India, and the company also intends to set up a new greenfield facility in Dahej. According to company chairman and managing director Vinod Poddar, the new facility will have a daily capacity of 225 tonnes.
During the second quarter of 2012 Nexen Tire achieved net sales of KRW 433.3 billion (£242.8 million), the Korean tyre maker reports. This result represents year-on-year growth of 29.8 per cent. Gross profit, at KRW 118.6 billion (£66.4 million), was up 49.2 per cent year-on-year and a margin of 27.4 per cent was reached. Operating profit amounted to KRW 51.8 billion (£29.0 million), up 90.1 per cent year-on-year, and a margin of 12.0 per cent was achieved. Ordinary profit came to KRW 42.7 billion (£23.9 million), 51.8 per cent higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2011. EBITDA, at KRW 72.3 billion (£40.5), was up 62.2 per cent year-on-year and had a margin of 16.7 per cent.
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