Michelin super soft Pilot Sport SS5 makes competitive rallying debut
With a variety of rallying conditions traversed at Rallye Monte Carlo, the opening round of the 2016 World Rally Championship required competitors to be acutely aware of their tyres, supplier Michelin states. At 1,474.34km, including 16 stages totalling almost 375km, the winter rally is one of the season’s longest, and Michelin’s provision of competitive tyres and a technical support service was vital in order for crews to compete. The tyre manufacturer said the versatility of this year’s tyre selection – two basic types, each available in two variants – allowed the crews to take full advantage of their allocations for the week. The event was the first competitive outing for the super-soft SS5 version of the Michelin Pilot Sport, which features the same construction as the soft Pilot Sport (S5), and was described as the predominant choice for Rallye Monte Carlo.
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Premitra HP5 car tyre a ‘huge step forward’ for Maxxis
Maxxis International has enhanced its passenger tyre portfolio with the launch of the Premitra HP5 tyre. The brand states that the latest addition adds a new dimension to Maxxis’ diverse product offering.
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Nokian launches iLine tyre for mass market cars
Nokian has launched its latest summer tyre, the iLine, available in a wide range of sizes towards the end of the first quarter of 2016. Intended for small and medium-sized cars, the tyre’s major performance characteristics include a focus on fuel efficiency and better water dispersal with the Finnish manufacturer’s “Venturi Grooves”. Nokian has also used pine oil in its rubber compound for the tyre to increase durability.
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UK car manufacturing at 10-year high
In 2015 the British car manufacturing industry made more cars than any year since 2005 when 1,595,697 vehicles were produced, according to figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Data released on 21 January shows that production increased 3.9 per cent on 2014, with output at 1,587,677 overtaking pre-recession levels for the first time.
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Michelin website selling tyres directly to consumers in Europe
Michelin will begin selling tyres directly to consumers online for the first time during the first quarter of 2016. The news came in parallel with the launch of the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4, which will be the first tyre to be sold by the company via this method.
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Triangle Tire gains IPO approval
Approval has been given for the long-anticipated Triangle Tire Co Ltd. initial public offering. The Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed on 6 January that the go-ahead was granted at the meeting of the exchange’s Issuance Examination Committee held earlier that day.
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Goodyear steps up tyre retail involvement with new UK digital platform
Goodyear has launched its next generation website in the UK and Ireland. While not quite the pioneering retail strategy employed by the manufacturer’s US digital platform, the new site (www.goodyear.co.uk) has increased the company’s interaction with end-consumers – a reaction to the sustained growth in consumers researching their tyre purchase decision online. In an unusual move for tyre manufacturers’ own websites, Goodyear also provides a recommended sell-out price on its tyres, which indicates a step towards the retail activity of its American cousin, albeit without any sort of requirement of the retailer to honour that price.
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A graphene tyre breakthrough?
Interview Giulio Cesareo, founder and CEO of Directa Plus It may have been discovered in by scientists at the University of Manchester, but graphene is entering the tyre business via Italy after well-known bicycle tyre manufacturer Vittoria SpA launched a tyre produced using the Nobel Prize-winning material in conjunction with another Italian firm, Directa Plus. […]
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Cooper Tire acquiring majority share in Chinese truck tyre maker
It’s now over a year since Cooper Tire & Rubber completed the sale of its share in the Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd joint venture. At the time, company chairman, chief executive and president Roy Armes mentioned that Cooper would “identify and develop alternative sources” for the tyres produced at the Cooper Chengshan plant; he identified a further joint venture as one potential option. The tyre maker reports it has realised this alternative source and has entered into an agreement to purchase a majority of China-based Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co., Ltd (GRT).
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Conditions ripe for European trade barriers?
New year, new trends It seems a bit pessimistic to start 2016 with a reference to recession. Nevertheless, when Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik suggested the UK tyre industry is in the grip of recession-based consumer behaviour at the end of 2015 she highlighted an important point. The market is encountering different purchasing […]
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Blackcircles founder Mike Welch receives OBE
Mike Welch, the founder and CEO of Blackcircles.com and long-time supporter of adoption and fostering charities in Scotland and the UK is to receive the OBE. Named in the Queen’s new year’s honours list, which was published on 30 December, Welch has been given the OBE for ”services to business and voluntary service to adoption and fostering”.
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Stuart Jackson joins Bridgestone
Former Apollo Vredestein UK managing director Stuart Jackson has joined Bridgestone’s north region senior management team as business development director. Jackson will work in support of all departments in the UK and Ireland as well as the Nordic countries of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Norway and will manage the delivery of a number of key projects as part of a continued process to transform the sales and profitability of the business.
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Autogem: TPMS tsunami coming
Last November European legislation mandating the fitment of TPMS into new cars came into force. Since then, checking for functioning TPMS and associated warning lights has become part of the MOT process. As a result, TPMS is beginning to enter consumer consciousness. So is the TPMS market growing in line? And how are structural features such as the market’s distribution set-up affecting this growth? Tyres & Accessories spoke with Autogem managing partner and NTDA South East region chairman, Prashant Chopra in order to find out more.
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How on-board sensor trends are impacting the tyre market
Tyres have been getting cleverer for some time. RFID chips have been embedded in tyres for a decade or more across a range of applications. Michelin, for example, has patented a special way of embedding RFID chips in truck tyres before curing in such a way that chips are not destroyed by the intense heat and/pressure applied during vulcanisation. As a result, the French manufacturer is able to track its premium commercial vehicle products from new tyre through several retreading cycles. Goodyear has been using the technology in Nascar and other motorsport activities for some time. And Chinese tyre manufacturing equipment maker Mesnac first showed Tyres & Accessories a tyre with multiple RFID chips embedded a decade ago. As useful as all this is, it is only one dimension of what is going on. In short it is just one example of how tyres are now getting even smarter.
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BKT preparing for 51-inch giant tyre production at $500 million plant
The northwest region of India’s Gujarat state is home to large areas of desert where you may encounter thorny shrubs, packs of wild animals – and a state-of-the-art US$500 million tyre factory. On a 312 acre site, Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (BKT) has erected one of the largest off-road tyre plants in the world, a facility capable of producing 325 tonnes of tyres per day. Tyres & Accessories visited in early December.
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