Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. has published its consolidated business results for the 2012 financial year – a shortened, nine-month period owing to the Japanese firm’s changeover to a January to December fiscal year in 2012.
Solvay is investing 75 million euros in building an 85,000 ton a year Highly Dispersible Silica (HDS) plant in Włocławek, Poland. Combined with further capacity expansion at its site in Qingdao (China), these two investments are designed to increase Solvay’s global highly dispersible silica production capacity by 30 per cent.
For those of you who missed evo’s recent winter tyre test, Continental wishes to point out that its ContiWinterContact TS850 came out on top. Eight size 205/55R16 winter and all-season tyres – and one Continental summer tyre – were jointly evaluated by evo tester John Barker and testers from Auto Express. Evo found the TS850 to be “responsive, stable and predictable in all scenarios” and said “winter tyres come no more capable or reassuring that this.”
First Industrial Tyres Ltd (FIT) has opened its fifth distribution depot. FIT, which was founded in 2010 by Edward Woolley, has opened the depot in Newbury, Berkshire with a view to serving the south and west of England. Prior to his latest venture, Edward Wooley was managing director of Mobile Industrial Tyres Ltd and Watts Industrial Tyre Services Ltd.
Being ‘serviced’ by Daniel Craig is perhaps not everyone’s idea of a pleasant day, but it appears that quite a few female motorists wouldn’t mind having the James Bond star as their personal motor mechanic. This factoid emerged during a consumer survey Micheldever Tyre Services carried out for Valentine’s Day.
After competing as one of three tyre suppliers to the Australian GT Championship in 2012, Pirelli’s Australian motorsport supplier Trofeo Motorsport has been granted the rights to become the control tyre supplier for the 2013 season, and the naming rights sponsor for the category for the next three years.
Production capacity for Yokohama Rubber’s passenger car tyres will increase in Asia and Russia through the implementation of two separate projects.
Dunlop has completed its first test of its new MSA British Touring Car Championship soft compound tyre at Rockingham. In 2013 drivers of NGTC specification cars must use one set of soft compound tyres for one of the three races following a regulation change. Drivers must nominate the race in which they will use the tyres without the knowledge of other drivers’ strategies before Saturday’s qualifying session.
Pirelli has announced the P Zero slick tyre compounds it will provide to Formula One for the first four grands prix of the 2013 World Championship season. The races will take place in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain, over the course of which all four compounds will be used. In addition, no two grands prix will receive the same allocation variation, meaning that there will be a wide variety of tactical possibilities on show in the opening stages of the season. Such a move could help to retain the intrigue of the opening stages of the 2012 season, during which seven different drivers claimed victory in each of the first seven grands prix. Pirelli’s tyres have been overhauled this year too, and while the compounds are designed to offer fast warm-up performance through being generally softer, teams will be getting used to the way their cars handle the new rubber in the different conditions offered by these races.
Sales of heavy good vehicle trailers fell 6.3 per cent across Western Europe in 2012. Meanwhile heavy truck demand fell by more than 9 per cent, according to market analysts from the Clear agency, which pointed out that the figures were in line with its expectations. The fall was almost universal – only Norway and Denmark experienced increased trailer demand. The worst performing markets were Italy, Portugal and Spain, which saw falls of between 20 and 40 per cent.
Kiene has developed a new adapter for its K-1350 Wheel Grabber. According to the company, the new “Extender” allows a technician to safely remove seized wheels from vehicles on a floor lift.
Michelin and BMW Motorsport have announced plans to join forces to contest the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2013. According to the two companies, this means the German carmaker’s BMW Z4 GTE and BMW Z4 GT3 cars will run on Michelin ‘Ultimate’ endurance racing tyres. The 2013 programme’s first competitive outing will be the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida, USA, on 16 March.
Full year results for Swedish firm Trelleborg AB show its Trelleborg Wheel Systems business unit generated net sales of SEK 3,865 million (£386.8 million) in 2012, a very slight increase on a year earlier. In the final quarter of 2012 sales came to SEK 833 million (£83.4 million), 13 per cent less than a year earlier. Reporting this fourth quarter result, the company says Q4 sales were lower year-on-year in all market segments, however they were in line with general market trends. Operating profit amounted to SEK 449 million (£44.9 million) last year, a 12 per cent increase the Swedish company attributes to enhanced efficiency and favourable capacity utilisation. Final quarter operating profit dropped 27.3 per cent per cent to SEK 72 million (£7.2 million), primarily due to lower sales.
In prior years the US-based off-road tyre specialist Titan International has expanded not just through organic growth, but also through strategic acquisitions. And according to company chairman and CEO Maurice Taylor, the shopping tour is not over yet. The next goal is the 50-year old Indian steel wheel manufacturer “Wheels India Ltd.”, a TVS Group company.
For the final quarter of 2012, Nexen Tire has reported sales of KRW 411 billion (£240.1 million), a year-on-year increase of 2.4 per cent, KRW 24 billion (£14.0 million) in operating income, a 90.1 per cent increase on Q4 2011, a 5.7 per cent operating margin and net profit of KRW 21 billion (£12.3 million), up 12.1 per cent year-on-year.
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