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Continental revealed its strategy for growth at its Capital Market Day yesterday. The company aims to enhance value creation by implementing cost reduction measures, with a goal of achieving an adjusted EBIT margin of 8-11% within 2-3 years and improving within this range thereafter. Continental also refined its sales targets and now aims for €44-48 billion in 2-3 years and €51-56 billion in 3-5 years.
Birla Carbon celebrated the 65th anniversary of its Cubatão Plant in November 2023. Located in the state of São Paulo, 12 kilometres from the seaport city of Santos, the Cubatão plant has reportedly played a crucial role in Birla Carbon's global operations.
Linglong reports that it is “conducting on-site inspection, analysis and comparison of the third overseas base”, according to a statement released to institutional investors. However, behind the headline-grabbing references to a new further overseas factory which may well be in “the Americas”, Tyrepress China noticed that the tyre manufacturer revealed multiple details about progress with the Serbian factory. Specifically, Linglong said: “Many customers are looking forward to supplies from Serbia and are pressing for them. The company will speed up the construction progress in Serbia”.
Apollo Tyres is celebrating the achievement of its latest Vredestien Quatrac all-season tyre, after the product secured second place in the 2023 Auto Express All Season Tyre Test. Developed for mid-sized family cars and SUVs, the Quatrac was given a ’Recommended’ rating alongside the winning Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3, having proved its all-round performance in all conditions – it was top in braking on snow and in the wet, while it only dropped one place in the dry braking test, emphasising its safety credentials. Overall, it was just 0.1 per cent behind the winner. The Quatrac could also be called a value champion, acquired for a price around 20 per cent cheaper than the winning tyre.
An analysis of MOT failure data suggests that independent garages should consider how best to service demand for electric vehicle tyres. Matt Cleevely, managing director of Cleevely Electric Vehicles (EV), said the company is stocking a growing inventory of EV-specific tyres, with around 100 sales every month. This is on the back of new data analysis by Garage Industry Trends, which reveals that half of all EV MOT failures on vehicles registered after 2016 relate to tyres – almost double that of a diesel. Additionally, almost 60 per cent of EV advisories relate to tyre condition.
Two vehicles equipped with Yokohama Geolandar tyres for SUVs and pickup trucks captured class championships in two United States off-road racing series: Best In The Desert’s Trick Truck class and the ULTRA4 Racing’s 4900 UTV Pro Mod class. Best In The Desert is the largest off-road racing series in North America, with two-wheel and four-wheel vehicles compete in more than 50 different classes. The Trick Truck class championship was won by Jonathan Brenthel driving a truck fitted with Geolandar M/T G003 tyres.
Continental relaunched the Bandvulc retreading plant it acquired in 2016 as the ContiLifeCycle plant in March. Based on what Conti EMEA’s head of commercial consumer solutions Ralf Benack described as the existing “deep knowledge” of Bandvulc, the facility in Ivybridge, Devon has become a technical innovation hub for the company’s tyre retreading programme in the region. When Tyres & Accessories visited the plant later in the year, the manufacturer revealed the results of strong annual investments and its innovative implementation of automated processes for increased efficiency, and the key role that reatreading plays in Conti’s overall sustainability strategy.
After months of fine-tuning and integrating into development processes, Continental has begun operations with its new driving simulator for tyres and aims to use it in particular to assist original equipment tyre development. Tyrepress recently visited the simulator to find out more.
Hankook Tire & Technology Co. is opening a local corporation in order to sell tyres in Taiwan. According to the The Korea Economic Daily, Xu Shengqi, a Taiwanese executive with over 20 years of Hankook experience, at the helm. The newspaper also reported that Hankook “is also considering launching a local corporation in Romania to enhance its European presence”.
Tyres and wheels are all too often dismissed as peripheral vehicle components, so let’s hope Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation will address this falsehood with their new Universal Wheel Drive System, or Uni Wheel. The vehicle makers consider Uni Wheel a “paradigm-shifting vehicle drive system” that will “revolutionise the design of future mobility devices.”
Research by Bridgestone and Webfleet has found that 85 per cent of UK fleet operators are seeking ways to spend less in 2023. Sentiment in the sector is not optimistic about their business prospects too, with more than a third of HGV operators (36%) predicting that they will contract. The tyre manufacturer and its fleet services arm commissioned research consultancy Perspectus Global to conduct online research with more than 200 UK fleet decision makers in an attempt to appreciate the economic landscape from their unique perspective and how they plan to navigate their way through it. Following this research, the companies said that they have compiled four money-saving solutions to ease fleets’ financial pressures.
Germany’s position as a centre of manufacturing took another blow today with the confirmation that Michelin will gradually cease production at its Karlsruhe and Trier sites, as well as the manufacture of new tyres and semi-finished products in Homburg. Michelin will also transfer its Customer Contact Center from Karlsruhe to Poland. These changes are expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and will impact a total of 1,532 employees.
Continental has introduced an updated ContiPT18 solid tyre with new tread wear indicators into its material handling portfolio. In addition to standard sizes, the tyre will be available in eight new sizes in the second quarter of 2024. Used primarily in intralogistics, the ContiPT18 product line is designed for indoor and outdoor use on any surface and is suitable for the highest demands and applications in three-shift operation.
Within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Korea Expressway Corporation’s Road Traffic Research Institute, Nexen Tire intends to reduce the time and expense required to produce tyres for original equipment customers. The two partners signed the MoU on 27 November at the Research Institute’s headquarters in Dongtan, Hwaseong.
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