Record Shipments For Superior
Superior Industries International has reported that net income for the first quarter of 2002 has exceeded analyst expectations with revenue and shipments reaching record highs. For the first quarter 2002 net income increased by 7.6 per cent or 0.65 dollars per diluted share. Shipments of aluminium wheels increased by 16 per cent bringing revenue for the first quarter to 186,532,000 dollars, a record for the company and a 12.3 per cent increase on the same quarter for 2001. The results include the write off on non-recurring start up costs of 1.653 million dollars in respect of the launch of the new aluminium suspension parts operation. The joint venture wheel manufacturing operation in Hungary also posts profitable results.
Continue ReadingCooper sales up seven percent
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has announced, from its headquarters in Findlay, Ohio, a 2002 first quarter net income of $26 million US dollars. Net sales were $813 million US dollars, representing a seven percent increase over the first quarter of 2001.
Continue ReadingBig First Quarter Loss For Ford
Ford reported a loss of $800 million for the first quarter, compared to a $1.13 bn profit for the same period last year. The figure includes $708 million in goodwill write-downs, mainly for Kwik-Fit, although core automotive operations lost $310 million in Q1 (Q1 2001: + $748 m). Despite the figures, Ford shares rose 2 per cent as the company forecast that it would outperform the market in Q2.
Continue ReadingSoftware Saves For Hayes Lemmerz
Software supplier MSC, working with Hayes Lemmerz, has reduced time and materials costs in automotive wheel manufacturing and design by using its MSC Acumen and MSC Fatigue software to perform durability analysis. Software simulation has allowed the design of lighter, longer lasting products which can save millions of dollars in manufacturing, maintenance and warranty costs. Khosrow Namdarian, senior structural analyst with Hayes-Lemmerz, stated The advantage is that if you make 4 million of just one aluminium part per year and can save a quarter of a pound of aluminium per part, that adds up to one million pounds of aluminium saved in materials costs on just one part.
Continue ReadingNew Name For Heafner
The Heafner Tire Group is changing its name to American Tire Distributors as from the 4th July 2002. The new name reflects the national nature of the business and focuses on the distribution element of the company. The name change is part of a national branding operation to standardise the company image and operation throughout the USA.
Continue ReadingYokohama For Aston Martin Again
After having fitted the V 12 Vanquish with tyres Yokohama has now announced that it will supply the 2002 DB7 Vantage with OE tyres. The sports car will be fitted with the AVS Sport in 245/ ZR19 93Y on the front axle and 265/30 ZR19 93Y on the rear. All Yokohama Aston Martin original equipment tyres are marked with the letters AML on the sidewall (Aston Martin Lagonda).
Continue ReadingProduction Back To Normal After Fire At Hankook Factory
Production is back to normal after a fire at Hankooks state of the art tyre factory in Kumsan, Korea. Details are sketchy, but it is believed that the fire started in, and was confined to, the mixing area, but production continued using materials brought from other factories. The effect on supply of product was minimal.
Continue ReadingUS Tyre Fire Extinguished
The tyre fire in Roanoke, Virginia, which has been burning for 25 days, has finally been extinguished. The blaze began when a brush fire ignited an estimated four million tyres, the result of forty years collection of casings to supply a recycling/retreading venture that never got started. An official estimated that only 3,500 tyres remain and that the clean-up operation should last only weeks. This compares to the clean-up after Virginias worst-ever tyre fire, which is still on-going nearly two decades after the fire.
Continue ReadingNo New Standard For Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems And Runflats In Sight
A short time after the Firestone recall in the US the Congress proclaimed a law so called Tread Act, the President signed it and it became effective. Especially the improvement in safety of the consumers was the target of this initiative, which should for a lot of products in the automotive area lead to changes, also for tyres and not only for tyre pressure monitoring systems. Among others was fixed that from November 1st all in the United States new registrated cars should be fitted with tyre monitoring systems. The American public agency NHTSA got the order to make proposals regarding the details of new tyre (safety) standards for the biggest vehicle market in the world. Under the title Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems the agency made a report, in which a lot of knowledge with regard of the contents in the Ford/Firestone dispute flued in. The NHTSA results should lead to a regulation the congress should agree on April 1st last year already. But even still now the procedere is not finished and got a set-back: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a White House department, gave the NHTSA report back to the agency and made some additional proposals the NHTSA should proof before a new standard regarding to car tyres could be concluded. Most criticized by the OMB were: too high costs - for the national economy, the affected industry and the consumers. That car makers and suppliers still have to wait until it will be clear which regulations will be common is a pity: We learnt to talk about the round black things and are not really surprised when we hear about elevations with fatale results about the state of tyres. The nowadays state of tyre technology however could lead to a situation that the tyre is at the far end of reasons for accidents. Our magazine gives the newest developments in the April issue in detail and also gave some insiders the opportunity to publish their point of view. They all agree in one point: The world of tyres - in technical aspects - stands before revolutionary changes, and a lot of new chances.
Continue ReadingSale Of Daewoo To GM Moves A Step Closer
Daewoo workers in Korea have voted for the merger of the company with General Motors. The union had the final veto over the sale, under which GM will take a 67 per cent stake in Daewoo, with the remainder going to creditors, but almost 70 per cent of the workforce voted in favour. Daewoo ran into trouble nearly 18 months ago when the break up of the large Daewoo organisation left the car maker with debts totalling 10 billion US$.
Continue ReadingCar Industry Between Hope And Worry
The car makers usually use the Geneve Car Salon not only for the presentation of their newest models and show cars but also for a position-fixing. Because they are in all the worlds single markets present and - especially the volume car manufacturers - in most of the market segments, the differences mostly are only in nuances. Not often before the views were so far away than this year: optimists versus pessimists; pragmatism here, utopism there; the picture of the global car market is rather distinguished. Scientists in the automotive area see the luxury segment on the limit. They believe that the progress in sales some car makers believe in will not happen. Unbroken seems the trend to sport utility vehicles (SUV) and especially to those with a very exclusive appointment. If you see such a car you might think of the roots of offroad vehicles, but the car makers made them to onroad cars. Whereas normal cars in the US again lost 10.9 percent market share at the beginning of this year, more light trucks were sold than ever and with a plus of 4.4% made the distance to passenger cars wider. Also in Europe more SUVs were sold, but it is common that the market for this segment will stay under the state of North America. But two other new trends enter the focus: On the one hand so called cross-over models mixing two traditional car segments into one - for example cabrio and offroad. The second trend has the market of small cars in focus: the cars might be small but not cheap as a car like the Mini shows. In Geneve the managers and journalists discussed about company state of business, markets with a sales plus were welcomed, markets with a minus were grieved over: Usually it was the wrong policy, but definitely the bad economy guilty. And the suppliers are always in the shipping lane of the car makers.
Continue ReadingSava Introduces New High Performance Tyre Intensa
Slovenian tyre manufacturer Sava, since 1998 owned 60 per cent by Goodyear, presented their new high performance tyre Intensa for middle and upper class vehicles to the press and an international group of 360 retailers, from 21 nations, in Planica at the end of March. The directional tyre, which will replace its predecessor Rapidex, has been developed in co-operation with the Luxembourg R&D-department of Goodyear and will appear in 27 different sizes from 185/65 R 14 86H up to low profile dimension 235/40 ZR 17 90 W. The new tyre is made at a production plant that is regarded as one of the best and most powerful within the Goodyear organisation. In the past year the 1,400 employees manufactured seven million tyres - however just 57 per cent of these had the brand name Sava on their sidewall. The other 43 per cent were other group brands - Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda, Debica and, until the end of 2001, some sizes of Kelly. All these brands are produced in parallel at the plant located in Kranj. The turnover of Sava could be increased 13 per cent up to 210.7 million US-Dollar under the leadership of Richard A. Johnson, former European finance boss of Goodyear. This year Sava aims to reach a result of 7.3 million units and a turnover of more than 233 million US-Dollar. Today, it is almost exclusively passenger car and light truck tyres that are manufactured in the production facility. The production of truck tyres has been shifted towards other plants in Poland and Turkey in recent years. Further foreign markets for the brand, which is well known in Central and Eastern Europe, include Western Europe, but especially South America, Middle East and Asia. Further highlights in the event programme were the guided tour through the factory in Kranj as well as a visit to the World-Cup final in ski-flying which is traditionally held in Planica.
Continue ReadingAlloy Wheel Report, Part 2: Replacement Market Germany 2001 ”Serious Situation, But By No Means Without Hope …”
After the OE-market for light alloy wheels was examined and discussed in detail in the March issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, the second part of our wheel report focuses on the situation in the international, and specially the German, replacement market situation. In the first part of the introductory article actual developments and trends in the sector are discussed. One trend, for example, is the continuing price struggle of the competitors which has - allied with a stagnating general market situation - had great influence on the wheel business as a whole and has been fought out more and more in the winter segment. One victim of this development was the company Intra/Exip, which had to announce insolvency at the beginning of this year. Furthermore an increasing interest of aftermarket companies in OE-business has to be considered. Parallel to this observation the spring time offensive in the aftermarket which was announced by OE-suppliers last year did not take place at all, because these companies (like e.g. Ronal and Borbet) had more than enough on their plates in order to fulfil their OE commitments. In the second part of the introductory article the aftermarket players are ranked according to their sales figures/volumes in 2001. We estimate the complete volume of the German aftermarket in 2001 at 2.65 million units. This figure includes the wheels which have been sold by companies with their own production (e.g. ATS, Artec/RH, BBS, Borbet, Dezent, Ronal, Rial) as well as by the ones without their own production to wholesalers and retailers. Furthermore the wheels that have been sold into the business by passenger car importers are counted and - last but not least - the private brands of the wholesalers themselves (Alcar with AEZ/Enzo/Dotz, Interpneu with Platin or Brüning with ProLine). The number of tuning-wheels sold in Germany amounts to 300,000 additional units. Last year experts predicted a mid term decrease of the market of up to minus 20 per cent over the next four years. Nowadays nobody wants to confirm this fairly negative perspective anymore. Mid term regressive market - this is the forecasting formula creating the greatest consensus among the market experts now. One reason for this slightly more positive prediction might be found in the extremely buoyant winter business with alloy wheels that are getting cheaper and cheaper and are accepted more and more as a serious alternative to steel wheels by the end-users. The decrease in other sectors is partly compensated by this. The consequences of the terror threats of the 11th September in New York for the light alloy wheel sector are quite difficult to predict. Should there be a large negative effect on the worldwide sales figures of new cars, this would have an effect on the international wheel suppliers also. First of all this development would hit the OEM-suppliers, with a certain slow-down too in the aftermarket. A certain uncertainty of what the future will bring is the order of the day in the alloy wheel sector. As a result of this uncertainty, some companies have slowed down or stopped their investment programmes, at least for the time being.
Continue ReadingSmarTire Engages Financial Advisor
Tyre pressure monitoring specialist SmarTire has appointed H. C. Wainwright and Co. Inc. (Boston) as the company’s financial advisor. Wainwright was founded in 1868 and is one of the United States oldest private, independent investment banking firms. Additionally, SmarTire has completed issuing 750,000 shares to raise 1.31 million dollars. The funds will be used for debt repayment and working capital.
Continue ReadingSwings And Roundabouts At China Enterprises Ltd.
Consolidated results from 2001 for China Enterprises Ltd. show a varied year for the group with as many ups as downs. The company states that Chinese tyre prices fell by 3-5 per cent during the year due to 2001 high inventories and high levels of competition. Although raw material costs remained low, warranty claims were higher than expected - a result, according to the company of end-users overloading their vehicles.The Companys gross margin fell from 9.90 per cent for 2000 to 8.87 per cent for 2001. The decline was substantially due to Yinchuan CSI, whose margin was adversely affected by weak selling prices and provisions for warranty claims. On the other hand, Hangzhou Zhongce increased its margin to 11.8 per cent in 2001 compared to 10.1 per cent for the previous year. Revenues for 2001 were up by 20 per cent on 2000, mainly due to increases in sales of radial car tyres in the domestic market. Export sales though dropped by 3.7 per cent in value. China Enterprises sold 6.2 million vehicle tires, 34 million bicycle tires and 2.5 million wheelbarrow tires in 2001.
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