General Motors acquire remaining 50% of Saab
General Motors announced that it will acquire the remaining 50% of Saab. 130,000 Saab vehicles were produced in 1999.
Continue ReadingBridgestone Opens Fourth Japanese Plant For Diversified Products
On February 15th, Bridgestone opened its fourth plant in Japan devoted to the production of diversified products such as high performance functional films and precision components of rubber and plastic. The factory, sited in Iwata, covers an area of 17.3 hectares, of which 2.3 hectares are under cover, and employs 130. It is Bridgestones 15th factory in Japan.
Continue ReadingGoodyear decrease in net income
Goodyears net income for the fourth quarter of last year amounted to US$ 47.8 million compared with US$ 121.5 million in the fourth quarter of 1998. The companys net income for the whole of 1999 was US$ 241.1 million compared to US$ 682.3 million in 1998.
Continue ReadingMarc P. Frissora Is New Tenneco Chairman
Marc P. Frissora, President and CEO of Tenneco Automotive since April 1999, succeeds retiring Dana G. Mead as Chairman of the US manufacturer of shock absorbers and exhausts.
Continue ReadingTyres And More With Michelin
Consumers can boost their air miles accounts with Lufthansa by 2,000 miles if they buy four Michelin Pilot tyres and are willing to fill out a customer survey questionnaire. More information is available from Michelin in Karlsruhe or from Michelin trade partners, although they were not able to answer questions from this magazine.
Continue ReadingFifty Years Of Matador – Transformation Process Concluded
At the beginning of May the Slovak tyre manufacturer Matador celebrated the 50th anniversary of the company. The rubber factory in Puchov continued the long tradition of the trademark, which started in Slovakia’s present capital, Bratislava, in 1905. In the thirties Matador tyres were already original equipment on all vehicles then produced in Czechoslovakia. In those days Matador’s market share in the CSR was more than 20 p.c. Building work at the Puchov factory started in 1947, and the first tyres left the new production facility three years later, on 1st May 1950. In 1953 restructuring of the Czechoslovak tyre industry took place. A new trademark was created: Barum, combining the three manufacturers Bata, Rubena and Matador. From then on the Puchov factory also produced under this brand name. After the partition of Czechoslovakia in 1993 the Barum brand was taken over by Continental. The Puchov factory, however, was not part of the deal and reverted to the old brand name Matador. Today Puchov exports more than 80 p.c. of its output under this registered trademark. The 1999 turnover of the group of companies was about 600 million DM, with the tyre activities claiming a 65 p.c. share. Investments amounted to almost 15 million DM, and 12 million DM was spent on the research and development sector. This year investments are scheduled to double. More financial resources will be directed towards sales support measures and marketing for a further improvement in market acceptance. Since January 1999 Matador has produced radial truck tyres in a production joint venture with Continental, but with the distribution of the tyres still handled separately by the two partners. In the course of an ambitious restructuring programme the Puchov factory is to be thoroughly modernised to become the largest radial truck tyre factory in Europe. Read more in NEUE REIFENZEITUNG 5/2000.
Continue ReadingThat’s the Spirit!
The new blimp Spirit of Goodyear was christened by former NASA astronaut Sally Ride. Goodyear-CEO and President Samir Gibara was also on board for the first official flight.
Continue ReadingUK Commercial Vehicle Show A Success
This year’s Commercial Vehicle show at the NEC was a combination of three exhibitions – the SMMT’s CV show, the IRTE Show and Tipcon. No fewer than 579 exhibitors filled 42,500 square metres of floor space. Held over three days, the event attracted a remarkable 22,556 visitors and was generally held to be a great success. The tyre sector was well-represented, with manufacturers, retreaders and service providers, illustrating the importance of the commercial fleet market to tyre companies. Competition in this sector of the tyre business is fierce, with margins consequently depressed. TYRES & ACCESSORIES spoke to ten tyre manufacturers and retreaders at the show and the overwhelming message was that customers were demanding ever-increasing amounts of information and more sophisticated back-up services. The actual product of the tyre, given that it is of an acceptable level of quality in the first place, appears to be of less and less importance in today’s market. An increasing number of fleet customers are looking for a partner to handle every aspect of their tyre policy, from supplying product to carrying out maintenance and servicing breakdowns. How do the smaller companies, which lack the resources of large manufacturers, survive in such an environment? Read the views of the following ten companies in the May issue of TYRES & ACCESSORIES. Bandag, Bandvulc, Bridgestone/Firestone, Continental, Dunlop, Goodyear, Marangoni Tread, Michelin, Truck Tyre Specialists and Vacu-Lug.
Continue ReadingMore Capacity At Michelin’s Thailand Plant
The Michelin Siam group is investing US$ 100 million to increase annual plant capacity from 2.9 million passenger and SUV tyres to 6 million, within two years.
Continue ReadingFuel-Saving Tyre from Bridgestone
With a fuel consumption of less than three litres per hundred kilometres (approximately 95mpg) the new Volkswagen Lupo TDI sets new standards. The reduced consumption has been achieved by a combination of various measures; the use of light-weight forged wheels by Fuchs is for instance a contributory factor to the reduced weight of the vehicle. On the tyre side, Bridgestone/Firestone has scored in original equipment with the B 381 Ecopia, size 155/65 R14 75T. The name, made up from ecology and utopia is also the statement of a programme, which will exploit experience gained in the construction of this tyre for future Bridgestone/Firestone products. The tyre manufacturer achieved weight reduction by using aramid instead of steel in the belt and light-weight polyester in the casing. Thanks to its clever rubber compound formula the tyre’s rolling resistance has also been optimised and at the same time has fulfilled the tyre manufacturer’s ecologically motivated desire for noise reduction. As an equivalent for the winter season Bridgestone recommends the WT 12 tread pattern.
Continue ReadingEdouard Michelin, “What we did was inept”
In an interview with the rather left-wing daily paper Liberation Edouard Michelin gave his comment on the so-called Michelin Affair. On 8th September the group reported a 20 p.c. rise in its half-yearly profits while at the same time declaring that it wanted to shed 7,500 employees in European factories within three years. The Michelin boss attributes the unusually fierce public reaction, by French politicians in particular, to insufficient public discussion. It has to be possible, he argued, to take the right entrepreneurial measures in time to achieve a rapid improvement in productivity, which is 15 to 20 p.c. below that of the group’s main competitors, Bridgestone and Goodyear. And the only way to do that, he claimed, is through accelerated growth on the basis of a new sales policy and through job cuts. Edouard Michelin reminded his critics that in the last twenty years the group had twice been faced with extinction, that it had needed to lose 25,000 employees in France and in spite of that had issued only 186 dismissal notices. Asked about the Lex Michelin (a change of law to accommodate the Michelin case, dealing with the application for state aid to facilitate social plans), Edouard Michelin pointed out that the group had indeed received a French state subsidy for its social plans in the past amounting to four or five billion francs, but that at the same time the French state had received 45 billion francs in social contributions, taxes and other levies. Today the group still makes 30 p.c. of total investments within France, he continued, and retains 30 p.c. of the production capacity in the country, although the domestic market takes only 15 p.c. of total sales. Though keen to dust off certain parts of the company, he said, he wants to preserve its culture, personality and customs. As the head of a family business he sees himself as permanently accountable and cannot afford not to make long-term plans, because he is only too well aware of having to defend his decisions also in five or ten years’ time. On the question of worldwide merger plans Edouard Michelin said that his company is in a position to play an active part. Our gaze is directed towards Asia. Michelin has a talent for growth.
Continue ReadingBFGoodrich Sends New “All Terrain T/A” into the Race
Recently BFGoodrich had chosen Dubai (United Arab Emirates) as the venue for the introduction of the latest 4x4 BFGoodrich tyre. The new tyre is the All Terrain T/A for mixed application on and off the road, a new/further development of its predecessor, Radial All Terrain T/A which will now be completely replaced by the new model in all sizes, with some more sizes added. This demonstrates the importance BFGoodrich attaches to the All Terrain tyres, a regularly updated line, which has sold well for more than 20 years. The ‚All Terrain T/A‘, along with ‚Mud Terrain T/A‘ and ‚Long Trail T/A‘ are some of our most popular 4x4 models, explained Matthias Utzinger, Kléber’s off-road product manager. The new T/A will be the most generally useful tyre in the product range, conceived for mixed applications, i.e. for light off-road work but also for the road and for drivers keen on sporty driving, without ever losing sight of its use as a work-horse. The forecast for Germany is approximately 100,000 new registrations for off-road cars in 1999, meaning more than 750,000 vehicles of that kind on the road in 2000, according to the tyre manufacturer’s market data, with 4x4 tyre replacement sales amounting to about 700,000. Thus the revised/new All Terrain T/A may well lead to BFGoodrich getting a larger slice of the cake.
Continue ReadingAvon Rubber Profits Fall
Avon Rubber has blamed falling car production in the UK for a 40% drop in annual profits to £3.3 million. Direct sales of automotive and technical products to Ford and Rover fell £7.6 million to £27.1 million. Shares fell 12.5p to 455p.
Continue ReadingMobile Fitting/Tire Valet also for Car Tyres
Only a month ago NEUE REIFENZEITUNG reported at length on Mobile Fitting as a sensible and vital service in the truck tyre business. Now Goodyear-Handelssysteme GmbH, a Goodyear marketing subsidiary, plans the introduction of Mobile Fitting (known as Tire Valet in USA) for car tyres. The idea is still at an early stage. Time is money, the marketing people in Cologne believe, and aim to gain new types of customers with the new service. With marketing programmes, whose details are still to be developed, the company wants to appeal to fleet operators as well as small enterprises, self-employed people as well as private users. Run as a comprehensive service, Mobile Fitting will also be suitable to give status to the tyre dealer. Whether Mobile Fitting can be taken as far as the end user’s front door is still uncertain. In our country potentially good ideas have the nasty habit of falling foul of vetoing authorities. Nothing can be done without special permission, to be granted by each local authority individually.
Continue ReadingNews from Pneumobil
Oskar Füthen (62), Managing Director of Pneumobil GmbH for almost 20 years, left the Pirelli distribution chain on 30th September 1999. Ralf Brockmann was appointed as the new Managing Director. And what is more, The distribution chain will no longer report to Pirelli Reifenwerke but to the Milan head office, which has taken over responsibility as per 1st October 1999, particularly for the strategic line in connection with the negotiation of terms and conditions.
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