Bridgestone’s motorcycle division has donated £10,000 to become the sponsors of the 18 August Rescue Ride Out, a nationwide bike convoy from all corners of the UK supporting the Air Ambulance service. The two-wheel spectacle culminates at the Brackley Festival of Motorcycling. The event has the support of British motorsport too; Steve Parrish, current BBC motorcycle commentator, is supporting the event.
The first commercially-available Tweel product has landed Michelin North America a Silver Edison Award. The tyre maker was presented with the transport category award at the Edison Awards ceremony, which was held on 25 April.
Although Goodyear Tire & Rubber shipped fewer tyres and generated lower sales in the first three months of 2013 than a year earlier, the bottom line for the quarter was much healthier. The only regional disappointment was, predictably, Europe – and Goodyear says it will address weakness in the European markets by implementing “additional productivity improvements”. Specific details regarding these measures have yet to be announced.
Revenues at online tyre retailer Delticom fell 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013 to 81.3 million euros, the company reports. Delticom suggests this drop in sales is linked to many motorists’ decision to delay purchasing summer tyres due to the persistent snowfall experienced in many parts of Germany and elsewhere right through to the end of March.
Pirelli & C. SpA shares that Camfin S.p.A., as a Pirelli shareholder and member of the Shareholder Agreement of Pirelli & C., will ask Pirelli’s shareholders at the company’s 13 May Shareholders’ Meeting to confirm Carlo Salvatori as a member of the Pirelli Board (as already proposed by the company’s Board of Directors). It will also request the nomination of Jean Paul Fitoussi and Luca Rovati in place of Mario Greco and Paolo Ferro-Luzzi.
On 26 April, Yokohama Rubber announced plans to set up a new plant to manufacture truck and bus tyres in the United States. The plant will be established with a capital investment of US$300 million and construction work will begin at the site in West Point, Mississippi by September 2013. The Japanese tyre maker intends for production to start in October 2015 and says the factory will have an annual production capacity of one million tyres.
Speaking at the Auto Shanghai 2013 show, Cao Zhuangzhu, Kumho Tire (China) Sales Company Ltd’s general manager of marketing and logistics, reported sales of 100 million tyres in China as of the end of 2012. “Following the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea in 1992, Kumho Tire was one of the first foreign-funded enterprises to invest in China, and construction began on our Nanjing plant in 1994,” he added. “Today we have a total of more than 5,500 employees and an annual production capacity of more than 30 million tyres.”
If the weather in Europe is anything it is fickle, and the last couple of years have thrown several extremes our way. Hankook recognises that all-season tyres may be very much at home in our unpredictable conditions and has introduced an entirely new range of medium to long haul truck tyres for all-season purposes. The range is called Smartflex and consists of each three main sizes for steer and drive axle tyres. Hankook says the M+S marked tyres are designed to handle increased load capacities and to provide driving safety under changing weather conditions.
Brake, the road safety charity, is applauding a report out today by the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, ‘Get Britain Cycling', calling for action to achieve 10% of journeys in Britain being by bike by 2025. Currently just 2% of journeys are by bike. The report urged government to work towards 20mph being the norm in urban areas, lower speeds on rural roads and more segregated cycle paths to encourage more people to take more journeys by bike. They recommended a cross-departmental Cycling Action Plan and leadership from the top of government to achieve ambitious targets to get more people out of their cars and onto their bikes.
Stewart Oades has handed over the presidency of the Freight Transport Association to Ian Veitch, managing director of Yusen Logistics UK, following FTA's National Council meeting in London on 23 April. Stewart Oades steps down after completing a four year term as FTA President.
While applauding the Prime Minister's pledge to "keep going" to block future fuel duty rises, the Road Haulage Association is still, as one of the original backers of the hugely successful campaign group FairFuelUK, committed to finding a permanent solution to the thorny issue of high fuel prices.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles – seen by many people as the answer to clean, all-electric mobility without the range restrictions of battery-electric cars – could be a step closer and a lot cheaper as a result of the pioneering efforts of a British company. There are currently two major barriers to the full-scale introduction of fuel cells – cost and the lack of a hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. But ACAL Energy, a small company based at Runcorn in Cheshire, claims to have devised a cell which would cost no more than a four-cylinder petrol or diesel engine.
US publication Tire Review reports that Northwestern Mississippi and western Tennessee are “abuzz with rumours over what automotive or tyre company plans to build a significant production facility in the region.” Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has called the state legislature into a special session on 26 April to consider a batch of economic incentives to lure a company to the state, and Tire Review says that a local newspaper describes the company in question as being a “Japanese” tyre company that wants to build a plant there.
Last Sunday saw some tightly contested drift battles at the Mondello Motorsport Park, with James Deane coming out on top in the first round of the Irish Drifting Championship. In his Falken sponsored Mazda RX-7, the 21-year-old Irishman saw off rivals Gavin Lenihan and Shane O’Sullivan from Team Japspeed, who took second and third place respectively.
Shortly before Tyres & Accessories visited Van den Ban in late March, the Netherlands-based wholesaler announced plans to enter the truck tyre market. A truck specialist, Hans Bakker, has been appointed to assist Van den Ban in growing this business; Bakker, along with commercial manager Cyril Versteeg, discussed the wholesaler’s plans in relation to truck tyres.
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