Premium Archives - Page 29 of 112

Sentury Tire chooses SSOE for US plant design

12th July 2017

Engineering, architecture and construction management firm SSOE Group has been selected to design the new Sentury Tire manufacturing facility and North American headquarters in LaGrange, Georgia.

Goodyear: SUV/4×4 sales projections “good news for premium brands”

11th July 2017

For Goodyear, 13 is by no means an unlucky number – with the addition of the Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure (See T&A May 2017), this is the number of products in the brand’s SUV/4x4 tyre portfolio. Towards the end of June, we were given the opportunity to experience the new tyre’s performance off-road, and in addition to providing us with access to all the mud we could ever wish for, this also gave us the chance to gain an overview of the market for these products.

Avon Tyres becomes official Derby County shirt sponsor

7th July 2017

Derby County Football Club announced today that Avon Tyres has become the Rams’ official shirt sponsor for the upcoming 2017-18 Sky Bet Championship season. As part of a multi-year agreement, the Avon Tyres logo will take pride of place on the front of all of Derby’s first-team kits for the forthcoming campaign.

Firestone launches Roadhawk touring tyre in Barcelona

6th July 2017

Bridgestone’s approach to marketing Firestone has seen the world’s largest tyre manufacturer’s second-line brand rise in prominence in European markets, while a rapidly overhauled product range has helped to solidify confidence in both quality and availability. The self-professed youthfulness of the marketing approach to Firestone has seen the brand featured in various live music venues around the continent, while the summer “Firestone Music Tour” of festivals has increased to sponsorship deals with nine premier events in key markets, including Download in the UK. The introduction of the latest tyre in the Firestone range, the Roadhawk for touring and family cars, was timed to coincide with the first festival of the tour, Primavera Sound 2017 in Barcelona’s Parc del Fòrum, and the company hosted dealers, automotive journalists, and a cadre of lifestyle writers and bloggers, demonstrating the sustained, relatively novel approach Bridgestone has brought to the brand since what might be termed its reinvigoration in 2014.

Tyred of waiting: anti tyre aging campaign gets renewed impetus

30th June 2017

The tyre industry has been involved in numerous awareness-raising campaigns over the years. The quality and creativity of these has increased significantly, especially in the decade since TyreSafe came into existence. However, when Frances Molloy re-launched the “Tyred” campaign on 30 June 2017, you couldn’t help but feel that you were witnessing something quite unique. As most of us in the industry already know, Frances’ son Michael Molloy died in a coach crash in the summer of 2012 that was caused by poor condition, 19 and a half year-old tyres. In fact no tyres on the coach were less than 10 years old. So when she says that Tyred is all about taking old tyres off the road, people listen.

Goodyear tyres OE on latest Jaguar Land Rover models

29th June 2017

At an event held in its Innovation Center in Luxembourg and at the Land Rover Experience Center in the west of Germany, Goodyear announced that two of its tyre lines have been approved for original equipment fitment on three Jaguar Land Rover models.

Hand-held laser tread-depth scanners come to the fore

28th June 2017

As our environment becomes increasingly technologically driven, it is no surprise to learn that as many as 15 per cent of tyres are being bought online. At the same time tyres are becoming more and more “intelligent” with built-in sensors such as TPMS. However, for a long time the business of checking tyre tread depth has been a relatively imprecise affair. A few years back standards improved with the development of digital tread depth probes, some of which even bluetoothed data to cloud-based systems. However, the latest technology takes routine tread depth checks and fleet audits to the next level.

New Algerian tyre plant to feature Cimcorp logistics automation

27th June 2017

Cimcorp has received an order to supply logistics automation facilities to a brand-new tyre plant in Algeria. The factory is a new venture for the Algerian consumer electronics and household appliances group, Saterex. With huge growth in sales of products marketed under its leading ‘Iris’ brand, Saterex is diversifying into tyre manufacture. The new plant is being built in Setif, 300 km east of Algiers, and will be the first tyre factory in Algeria since Michelin Group closed its plant in the capital in 2013.

Fintyre platform company acquires Reiff Reifen & Autotechnik

26th June 2017

Further consolidation has taken place within the tyre trade, and Germany’s Reiff Reifen und Autotechnik will soon be a sister company to Italian tyre wholesaler Fintyre. London-based platform European Tyres Distribution Ltd., parent company of Fintyre, has entered into a binding agreement with Germany’s Reiff Group to acquire its tyre and car technology business area.

Michelin cuts jobs in France and the US

22nd June 2017

Michelin has announced plans to significantly reorganise globally, resulting in significant job losses in France and the US most of which will be covered by natural attrition. In the United States 450 jobs in central functions are to be cut between 2018 and 2021. According to Michelin, 1,500 employees would actually leave the company in the same period, suggesting a large majority will result from natural attrition and retirement.

Tyrexpo UK cancelled

22nd June 2017

Tyrexpo UK organisers Singex have decided to cancel this year’s event due to the “current uncertain climate”. The announcement was made in a letter to partners – including Tyres & Accessories – which expressed the company’s disappointment and apologies that this decision was necessary.

ANRPC: Natural rubber demand and pricing heading in opposite directions

21st June 2017

Global demand for natural rubber (NR) is expected to outstrip supply this year, however the body representing 11 key producing countries cautions that strong demand doesn’t guarantee that the good prices seen earlier this year will be realised. Information published in June by the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) shows that NR prices across key physical markets suffered further losses from the last week of May, despite a continued deficit in world supply.

Autopromotec 2017 breaks all records

20th June 2017

Autopromotec 2017 was clearly something of a record-breaker. Towards the end of the show which takes place in Bologna, Italy every two years, Tyres & Accessories interview Renzo Servadei, managing director of Promotec Spa, the company behind the exhibition to find out more about what the company has been doing and what it plans to do next.

Prometeon COO talks with Tyres & Accessories

15th June 2017

As we have all heard by now, following the high profile acquisition of Pirelli by ChemChina (whose Chinese tyre manufacturing plants include respected truck and car tyre manufacturer Aeolus and well-known OTR tyremaker, Torch) what we used to refer to simply as Pirelli has split itself in two. The part focusing on car and other consumer-orientated high-performance products retains the Pirelli name, while the remaining parts of the business (which were previously known as Pirelli Industrial) are in the process of being merged with their Chinese opposite numbers, subject to approval by the relevant authorities, and folded into a new entity – Prometeon Tyre Group. Autopromotec was Prometeon’s first public outing, so Tyres & Accessories interviewed chief operating officer (COO), Murilo Fonseca, during the recent Autopromotec exhibition in Bologna to find out more about the strategy behind the moves.

Dunlop Aircraft Tyres sold to Liberty Hall Capital Partners for US$135 million