Cooper Tire reopening US and Serbia tyre factories
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is set to open its manufacturing plants in the United States and Serbia next week (the week commencing Monday 27 April). The facilities have been temporarily closed for approximately five weeks due to coronavirus and its impacts. The company’s plant in Melksham, UK remains temporarily closed. And Cooper’s Mexico plant is to close temporarily.
Continue ReadingWarburg Pincus acquires first tranche of Apollo Tyres shares
Warburg Pincus is now a shareholder in Apollo Tyres Ltd. During a meeting yesterday, the tyre maker’s Committee of Directors - Private Placement allocated Emerald Sage Investment Ltd., an affiliate of the private equity firm, 54,000,000 compulsorily convertible preference shares. Emerald Sage paid a total of Rs s. 5,400,000,000 (£57.56 million) for the shares in this first tranche transaction, or Rs 100 each.
Continue Reading![Michelin resuming activity ‘gradually’](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/edito_florent-menegaux_1600x790.jpg)
Michelin resuming activity ‘gradually’
The news that Michelin is reopening its UK retreading operation forms part of Michelin Group’s wider European and international reopening policy. From the start of the epidemic, the Michelin had stated that its number one concern has been to protect the health and safety of its employees and those close to them.
Continue Reading![Rubber processing: Toyo employing materials informatics technology](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Toyo-MI.jpg)
Rubber processing: Toyo employing materials informatics technology
Toyo Tire Corporation says it is employing materials informatics (MI) in its tyre development to predict the properties and optimise the material structure of the rubber materials it works with. MI is a component of Toyo Tire’s ‘Nano Balance Technology’ rubber material development platform, and was realised in collaboration with SAS Institute Japan.
Continue Reading![‘Ignite Your Blue,’ Toyo encourages motorists with new corporate visuals](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/toyo-ignite-blue.jpg)
‘Ignite Your Blue,’ Toyo encourages motorists with new corporate visuals
Toyo Tires has introduced a new visual marketing campaign based around its corporate blue colour. The new visuals follow up Toyo’s ‘Open Roads Await’ brand statement formulated in June 2019 to express “the frontier spirit” of the Toyo Tire Group, it states. Toyo reasons that the new imagery, which comprises a landscape awash in sky and ocean blues, reflects the company in its colour to “reaffirm” its message through a new website, music in the form of curated playlists and a specially commissioned song by Flynn Hudson, and prose. The new corporate imagery is being rolled out globally in 12 languages with a new video, which you can view below.
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Queen’s Award for Titan Steel Wheels
One of the world’s largest manufacturers of steel wheels for the off-highway and mobile crane industry has gained the royal seal of approval. Titan Steel Wheels has been awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short-Term Growth in overseas sales.
Continue Reading![Bridgestone European manufacturing network restarts production](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bridgestone_Burgos.jpg)
Bridgestone European manufacturing network restarts production
Bridgestone EMIA has resumed production at its European manufacturing plants in Bari (Italy) and Lanklaar (Belgium). The Béthune (France) plant will reopen tomorrow, 21 April 2020. This follows the 14 April news that production in all Bridgestone plants located in Spain (Burgos, Bilbao and Puente San Miguel) and Russia (Ulyanovsk) had recommenced. Today’s announcement means that Bridgestone EMIA’s full manufacturing network has restarted production with the exception of its Indian and South African plants, which remain closed for now.
Continue Reading![Bridgestone North Region appoints Andrea Manenti as vice president](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/andrea-manenti.png)
Bridgestone North Region appoints Andrea Manenti as vice president
Bridgestone has appointed Andrea Manenti as vice president for its North Region, which includes the UK and Ireland. Manenti joins Bridgestone from Trelleborg Wheel Systems where he was global OE senior director. He joined Trelleborg in Italy as sales director and has held managing director and country manager positions in the UK and Ireland, China and Asia.
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Trelleborg supplies Boeing with 3D-printed PPE component
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, an established provider of solutions to Boeing’s aircraft, is supplying a face shield component to the aerospace manufacturer as it joins the urgent effort to assist medical workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Continue ReadingBridgestone pausing production at 11 Japanese facilities
Eight Bridgestone tyre plants in Japan will soon shut down for six production days in response to decreased demand. In addition, the company is closing three non-tyre production facilities for up to four days.
Continue Reading![Hankook Tire CEO Cho receives suspended prison sentence](https://www.tyrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Cho-Hyun-Bum.jpg)
Hankook Tire CEO Cho receives suspended prison sentence
Cho Hyun-bum, chief executive of tyre maker Hankook Tire & Technology, has received a suspended prison sentence after being indicted on charges of accepting bribes and embezzling corporate funds.
Continue ReadingApollo Tyres approves £105 million NCB issue
At a meeting held on Friday, Apollo Tyres Ltd.’s Board of Directors approved the issue of Rs 10 billion (£105 million) worth of non-convertible debentures (NCBs) via a private placement. The NCBs will be issued in one or more tranches according to the limits approved by shareholders at the tyre maker’s Annual General Meeting on 31 July 2019.
Continue ReadingPredictive fault monitoring making Hankook Tire’s plants run more smoothly
In addition to the recently-announced application of artificial intelligence and digital sensor technology to automate the inspection of newly-manufactured tyres, Hankook Tire aims to improve the production flow in its factories via a new monitoring system that utilises artificial intelligence and IoT technology. It calls this Hankook Condition Monitoring System Plus, or CMS+ for short.
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Goodyear defers dividend as volumes drop 18% in Q1 2020
Preliminary results for the first quarter of The Goodyear Tire Rubber Company’s 2020 financial year were published today, with the company confirming its fiscal performance during the three months to 31 March was “greatly affected by the economic disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.” Tyre unit volumes declined 18 per cent year-on-year to approximately 31 million units and sales dropped 16.7 per cent to around US$3.0 billion.
Continue ReadingGoodyear preparing to restart European truck tyre production
Production at Goodyear’s tyre plants in Europe and several other regions was put on hold almost a month ago in response to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The company is now looking to resume its production activities through a “phased restart” in the second quarter of 2020, beginning with some of its truck tyre production sites in Europe and the USA before the end of this month.
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