Heavy Fines For Scrap Tyre Abuse
In January, two men pleaded guilty at Worcester Magistrates court to charges relating to the illegal dumping of scrap tyres in a case brought by the Environment Agency. The two men were fined a total of £12,250 and ordered to pay costs of £5,500.
Continue ReadingNew Communications General Manager At Continental
Dr. Heimo Prokop (43), director of communication at VAW Aluminium AG (Bonn/Germany), is to become the new director of communication of the Continental Group, Hannover, beginning the new job on 1st April at the latest. He succeeds Peter Schwerdtmann, who has already left the tyre manufacturer. Prokops main task will be the internationalisation and intensification of the communication activities of the Continental Group, underlining that it has changed from a pure tyre producer to a company that also offers chassis management solutions.
Continue ReadingContract For Supply Of BMW Mini Wheels And Tyres Goes To Pirelli
In the UK, Pirelli Tyres Ltd has been awarded the contract to supply all wheel and tyre assemblies for the new BMW Mini. The project includes conventional and run-flat tyres from 15 to 17. The tyres and wheels are assembled at the companys Burton-on-Trent factory and transported to BMWs renovated plant at Oxford. Pirelli says that it will develop its own run-flat tyre for the contract, rather than use other manufacturers products, although different brands of conventional tyres will be supplied.
Continue ReadingMMS Annual Poll 2000/2001: German Tyre Retailers Have Missed Their Targets
In the German tyre retailing business, the mood has swung towards the negative side over the last year. This is the main result of an annual poll carried out by the Marketing + Management-Systeme (MMS) among 2,400 German tyre retailers. According to the MMS-report, 80 percent of tyre retailers have been disappointed in their economic expectations. Among the co-operation members this is even higher at 85 percent. The main reason for the depressed mood has been the disaster of the winter tyre business in 2000 and there is no sign of any compensation in the form of new business activities. For 80 percent of the companies questioned, their central goal is to improve their service quality during this year. One year ago 30 percent of the retailers had stated that their expectations had been more than fulfilled, for 49 percent the expectations had been fulfilled. This time there are just three percent for whom the expectations have been more than fulfilled and another 17 percent who had achieved their aims. The most serious problem is the high quantity of winter tyres in stock. They block the capacities for the coming summer tyre season and cost a lot of time and money. First calculations are that 28 percent of the winter tyres have been not sold, which means a volume of five million units. With an average worth of 85 DM this adds up to an amount of approximately 400 million DM up to 425 million DM.
Continue Reading2000 Was The Most Successful Business Year Ever For ContiTech
The ContiTech Group of the Hanover-based Continental AG closed 2000 as the most successful business year in its history and, for the first time, each of its business units posted a positive operating result. Compared to 1999, the company increased sales by 4.2 per cent to 1.79 billion Euro. In 2000 ContiTech generated 68 percent of sales with automotive manufacturers and 32 percent with industrial customers in the non-automotive sector. The operating result (EBIT) experienced a disproportionate increase of 6.8 per -cent to 139 million Euro.
Continue ReadingDespite Sales Growth, Continental’s Profit Drops Significantly
The Continental Group is reporting a turnover of 2.578 bn Euro, compared with 2.426 bn Euro for the first quarter of 2000, and EBIT figures fell from 135 to 106 million Euro. Despite the fact that the Automotive Systems business unit showed a large increase in turnover from 749 million Euro (Q1 2000) to 879 million Euro, EBIT came down from 29 to 26 million Euro. Only ContiTech – which is up for sale – reported more or less unchanged figures. ContiTechs turnover makes up 18.5 per cent of the groups turnover, but 42 per cent of the groups EBIT comes from ContiTech. The performance of the passenger car tyre division was quite good, with a growth in sales from 588 to 636 million Euro and an EBIT rising from 36 million Euro (Q1 2000) to 46 million Euro. The situation at General Tire North America, now named Continental North America, is dire. For the first quarter of last year, the company achieved an EBIT of 15 million Euro. For the same period this year, it reported a loss of 23 million Euro. At the moment, there are no signs of a turnaround for the tyre division in North America.
Continue ReadingRubber Parts Unit For Toyo
Toyo Tyre and Rubber Co has announced the establishment of a wholly owned US subsidiary. The $20million plant will begin manufacturing vibration resistant rubber auto parts by July 2002. The companys main outlets will be Japanese motor manufacturers operating in North America.
Continue ReadingWheels Division Of ArvinMeritor Honored
ArvinMeritor Wheels Division announced at its plant expansion ceremony in San Luis Potosi (Mexico) that it was named General Motors Supplier of the Year for its superior performance in quality, service, technology and price. The award was given during ceremonies Saturday, April 28 at the historic Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. This marks the 9th consecutive year the division has been honored with this prestigious award.
Continue ReadingRevised Earnings Forecast From Bridgestone Imminent
Bridgestone has said that it will hold a press conference today to give a revised earnings forecast and details of revised output plans for its US subsidiary. Last years results were hit by the Firestone recall, with group net profit falling 80 per cent. President Shigeo Watanabe is scheduled to attend the news conference.
Continue ReadingRingtread Marketing Begins Successfully For Ellerbrock
A short time ago there was just one production facility for Ringtread products in the whole of Europe: at Marangoni in Frosinone (Italy) which is the patent holder for this product that has already been described several times in NEUE REIFENZEITUNG. Marangonis German subsidiary Ellerbrock has invested millions of Deutsche Marks in its plant located in the north of Hamburg in order to be able to produce the tread rings for itself. In addition Ellerbrock has assumed the distribution rights from Marangoni for the Ringtread products, covering the German speaking countries and Denmark. By the end of this year Ellerbrock (turnover 2000: > 60 million DM, 125 employees) wants to achieve complete coverage for these products within Germany. Up until now three retreaders have been working with this technology. The company has completed successful negotiations with a couple of other companies, as was underlined by Clemens Zimmermann, Director of Organisation and Systems at Ellerbrock. One of these companies is Reifen Ihle; one of the largest retreaders in Germany. There will be no cannibalisation effects on the other product lines. Ringtread will be offered in addition to the conventional product range, consisting of Kontur and PRL treads. The marketing strategy is a two-dimensional one: on the one hand Ellerbrock goes with the Ringtread retreader to the customer, the end user, in order to convince him of the advantages of this technology. On the other hand Ellerbrock searches for new customer groups which have until now exclusively used new truck tyres and not considered retreads. Zimmermann is convinced that the positioning of the products following the slogan Next to the New will be a helpful argument in this context.
Continue ReadingThe Financial Experts’ Favourite – Michelin
Reports from financial and industry analysts generally agree that the tyre industry, among others, is facing a difficult time with market conditions having worsened recently. Despite this, the Deutsche Bank AG, London is recommending Michelin shares as a buy, even though the organisation is downgrading its 2001 profits forecast for the French manufacturer by 3%.
Continue ReadingThe Retreading Of Truck Tyres
Whereas the incidence of car tyre retreading is slowly diminishing (in summer tyres this segment is virtually insignificant, in winter tyres market shares are falling dramatically and are approaching the ten percent mark), truck tyre retreading seems to be stable across Europe. But there are significant national differences especially regarding the incidence of retreading and the relationship between new tyres and retreads. Looking back over the last decade, not from the technological viewpoint but at the main players and their market shares, it was (before Michelin’s Recamic came on the scene) the Marangoni group (including Ellerbrock), which showed most growth. Kraiburg also showed positive development but the world’s no 1 in cold retreading Bandag showed signs of stagnation. If these three players have improved, strengthened or defended their market shares then there must also be losers, these being the new tyre producers who supplied the retreaders with materials for their business but especially the hot retreading. The four big players in the European truck tyre market (Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone, Continental) have tied up packages which should be regarded by the retreading specialists (like Bandag, Marangoni/Ellerbrock, Kraiburg) with some discomfort because the result is a lessening of their influence. New tyre manufacturers, retreaders and dealers find themselves as part of a package. The importance of retreaded truck tyres grows, while the importance of retreaders shrinks. The retreaded truck tyre is an integrated part of a very complex marketing concept. The retread is another item in a customer relation program, a marketing instrument, which is designed to lead to the sale of the next new tyre.
Continue ReadingSuperior Earns GM Agreement To Supply Wheels
Superior Industries International has been chosen by General Motors Corp. to supply aluminium road wheels for multiple GM vehicle lines over the next several years. Superior is a 2000 GM Supplier of the Year and was awarded the unprecedented contract based on its ability to consistently provide GM with world-class levels of quality, technology, service and price.
Continue ReadingGloomy Outlook For World Auto Industry – Report
The latest report from industry consultants Autopolis makes gloomy reading. The title A sharp decline to come: the outlook for the global vehicle industry to 2005 and 2010 says it all. It predicts that car and truck sales will drop by 11% from their peak before the end of next year. That is six million units, or the equivalent of the whole Japanese market and the report predicts fundamental changes to come in the worlds auto industry.
Continue ReadingHow Far Will Pirelli Shares fall?
The engagement with Telecom Italia has become an expensive adventure for Pirelli. Because telecommunications have fallen from favour on the stock markets the shares are rated even worse than those of automotive companies and analysts do not agree with Pirellis change in strategy. Pirelli shares are in a deep fall. This just as the so much abused tyre division presents admissible figures in a very hard market.
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