According to a statement released by Bridgestone Corporation on 18 February, the Bridgestone Technical Center Europe is soon to receive a new managing director. The tyre maker reports that Yutaka Yamaguchi will take on this role, which is currently held by Bridgestone Europe CEO and president Franco Annunziato, on 26 March.
Tarox F2000 brake discs have been made available to the Golf GTi Championship, a staple on the MSVR calendar. Competitors can choose to run an OEM style ‘smooth’ disc, or benefit from the improved cooling and pad-facing ability of the Tarox F2000 control option; the choice is left up to the teams. For 2013, competitors can also spec up to the larger 256mm set-up from the later GTi models. A combination, when fitted with a suitably aggressive pad and F2000 disc, that should see lap times falling amongst the quicker cars.
Infinity is increasing its involvement with the Acorn Motorsport team in the 2013 Maxxis British Drift Championship. Reflecting the company’s sponsorship and race tyre support, the team will compete in the 2013 championship under the new banner of Acorn Infinity Motorsports. AIM will run double the number of cars this season to four, challenging in all three classes – Semi Professional, Professional and Super Professional – with the goal of improving on last year’s fourth position in the constructor’s table.
Japanese manufacturer Toyo Tire & Rubber state that the appointment of Kenji Nakakura’s appointment as its new chairman and representative director and Akira Nobuki’s appointment as president, CEO and representative director will take effect on 28 March 2013. On that same date, numerous other personnel changes will occur; including those listed below.
Milltek has released a new exhaust for the B8 RS4. Milltek’s engineers report that they were keen to maintain the all-round character and usability of the RS4, whilst injecting a little more drama – and power – into proceedings. Two systems will be made available upon launch; a primary cat back, with full EC homologation and approval for those looking to keep things ‘OEM+’ and a wonderfully toned non-resonated system that offers a perfectly pitched rasp and growl, but without the in-cabin resonance and droning of lesser systems.
Two new automotive cleaning products have been launched under the Britemax brand name. Grime Out is designed to dissolve brake dust, engine grease, embedded dirt in rubber, bugs, tar, salt and hard water spots on glass. According to Britemax it performs where traditional cleaners fail, “turning tyres black and white walls and white lettering bright white.”
Trelleborg Wheel Systems reports it is participating in the ‘Zero Impact’ project organised by Italian organisation LifeGate. Zero Impact is a project that calculates and compensates for non-reducible CO2 emissions resulting from human activities, such as the manufacture of products. The idea behind Zero Impact is that environmental impact assessments are used to measure the affect of a particular activity, and participating companies can support the offset of this through the creation and protection of forest growth.
For the year ended 31 December 2012, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. recorded net sales of 710.2 billion yen (£4.9 billion), a year-on-year increase of 4.9 per cent. Operating income, at 69.7 billion yen (£481.5 million), was up 29.3 per cent on the 2011 result, while ordinary income of 67.4 billion yen (£465.1 million) represented a 34.9 per cent rise. Net income for 2012 amounted to 35.5 billion yen (£237.9 million), a 24.9 per cent year-on-year increase.
A return to Australia’s V8 Supercars Championship awaits Bridgestone in 2013, with the tyre maker teaming up with Nissan Motorsport in a sponsorship deal that will see Bridgestone branding on the Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altimas of Todd and Rick Kelly. The arrangement begins in round one of this year’s series, which gets underway in Adelaide on 28 February. The Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide marks the return of Nissan to Australia's premier motorsport category after a 20-year hiatus, with Mercedes-Benz also joining the expanded series.
A number of senior management changes were approved at Yokohama Rubber’s board of directors meeting on 14 February. These changes will be formally approved after the company’s general meeting of shareholders on 28 March.
The Department for Transport has released statistics relating to road traffic in Great Britain in the fourth quarter of last year and for 2012 as a whole. Over the year, the volume of all motor vehicle traffic fell by 0.4 per cent to 302.6 billion vehicle miles. Cars accounted for 79.4 per cent of all motor vehicle traffic, which is broadly the same proportion as in recent years.
Last year was a new high water mark for Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., with the 2012 fiscal year delivering record net sales, operating income and net income. The company says these results reflect the strong growth of original equipment sales to Japanese vehicle manufacturers, a business recovery in industrial products, success in securing market acceptance for price increases, a decline in raw material costs, continuing progress in reducing costs, and the weakening of the yen toward the end of the year.
The All India Tyre Dealers' Federation (AITDF) has approached the country’s Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT), a body that handles appeals against any decision made or order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), regarding the clean bill of health the CCI gave tyre makers when it investigated cartelisation claims. Last October the CCI found no evidence of cartelisation in the tyre industry, and thus dismissed a complaint filed by the AITDF. The manufacturers in question, Apollo Tyres, MRF, JK Tyre, Ceat and Birla Tyres, along with the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association, faced no penalty. These five manufacturers are said to control 95 per cent of India’s domestic tyre market.
Myers Industries has reported full-year 2012 figures, which feature a 40 per cent increase in earnings per share (EPS) growth. This was reportedly driven by productivity gains and new product introductions. 2012 net sales were US$791.2 million compared with $755.7 million in 2011. However, it has to be said that this was mainly held up by strong sales performance in the Engineered Products and Material Handling Segments. In fact, according to the company, it was the relative strength of these segments that “more than offset sales decreases in the Distribution and Lawn & Garden Segments.
When Michelin reported full-year 2012 free cash flow of 1.075 billion euros, financial analysts responded by describing the results as “a strong beat” compared with consensus expectations. However, questions about profitability (and the company’s continued momentum in this respect) remain a subject of discussion amongst the market watchers.
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