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Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) has held an official opening ceremony for the group’s new tyre factory in Cankiri, Turkey, named Sumitomo Rubber AKO Lastik Sanayi ve Ticaret AS (SAT). The Falken brand manufacturer will use the new facility to supply both the local Turkish market, which is benefitting from the country’s steady economic growth, and the geographically adjacent EMEA regions.
Lewis Hamilton’s 2015 Formula One Drivers’ Championship victory was sealed through a tactical battle in difficult conditions at the United States Grand Prix. Races run in wet to dry conditions always provide a challenge for teams; all the drivers started on new intermediates, waiting for the right crossover point when the track would be dry enough to move onto slicks. Both Hamilton and his team mate Nico Rosberg, who finished second, completed one opening stint on the intermediates followed by two stints on the soft tyre.
Marius Aasen has won the 2015 Drive Dmack Fiesta Trophy, seeing him claim what the World Rally Championship tyre supplier Dmack calls “the biggest prize in rallying;” he will claim a lucrative full seven-round series of 2016 WRC 2 competition using a Drive Dmack Ford Fiesta R5. Aasen completed his title-winning season with victory at the last of five events in Spain. The 23-year old and his co-driver Veronica Engan finished ahead of British rival Tom Cave, who claimed second place overall for the second successive season. The Fiesta Trophy was thrillingly close this season, with seven crews in with a mathematical chance of winning the title heading into the mixed surface RallyRACC-Rally de Espana.
At the start of October in Paris Michelin launched Michelin Tire Care, a suite of connected software solutions designed to help hauliers get the most out of their tyres. The idea is that fleets get more performance (and therefore financial value) from their tyre purchases as they use the mobile/tablet-based software, and in doing so see the benefit of premium and especially Michelin truck tyre products. While software is clearly at the heart of this latest announcement, Tyres & Accessories considers whether we should be using the term “strategy” instead.
Nokian’s Weatherproof All-Weather, WR SUV 3, and WR D4 tyres have performed well in the latest round of consumer tyre testing. Most recently the tyres have respectively achieved the best performance on snow and in the wet in Auto Zeitung’s all-season tyre test 2015, the Off Road and SUV magazine winter tyre test 2015 top spot, and the “very recommendable” rating in Auto Zeitung’s winter tyre test. The all-weather product has also been lauded by the UK’s Auto Express and Germany’s VOX TV show, Auto Mobil 2015.
Kumho’s first North American tyre plant is due for completion in early 2016. The facility is sited in Macon, Georgia, close to Atlanta Airport, which Kumho explains is the busiest in the world, and under 180 miles from the international port of Savannah. Kumho aims to strengthen its position globally and in the key North American market, and has invested $420 million in the factory so far. When complete, the building will cover 21 acres, and produce around four million tyres per annum. Around 90 staff are already engaged on site, a figure that will rise to 400 by the time of next year’s opening.
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. is to buy large US tyre retailer The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack in an US$835 million all-cash deal. The transaction will be executed by Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC (BSRO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas and follows the signing of a merger agreement under which BSRO will pay $15.00 per share, a price that represents a premium of 23 per cent over Pep Boys’ closing price of $12.15 on 23 October 2015 and a premium of 62 per cent over Pep Boys’ pre-buyout speculation price of $9.25 on 19 May 2015.
Newly inaugurated Pirelli president, ChemChina’s Ren Jianxin, recently told Corierre della Sera of his pride in his company for completing the recent acquisition of Pirelli and his personal satisfaction to be working with Marco Tronchetti Provera. According to the interview, which was published in the Italy daily newspaper on 22 August, the acquisition and subsequent appointment is a great moment for ChemChina and for Ren himself it is a great honour to be Pirelli president and to work with Marco Tronchetti Provera, who he sees as an older brother and a teacher. He also revealed details of the wider strategy behind the investment.
Goodyear has announced that it is supplying 19- and 20-inch OE tyres for the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. As you would imagine, smooth ride is an important part of this particular OE deal, so it is interesting to note that the associate OE fitments feature Goodyear’s SoundComfort Technology integrated into the tyres.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries will present its latest “Advanced 4D Nano Design” materials development technology at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show, with a booth displaying both Falken Tyre and Dunlop brands. The show runs 29 October to 8 November 2015 at Tokyo Big Sight, Japan. In Europe, Falken tyres have achieved double-digit performance improvements with the earlier application of these design techniques used to develop Ecorun-branded products. With a Dunlop-branded version already on sale in Japan Sumitomo has already previewed a prototype Falken “fossil fuel-free” tyre for the European market, and the 4D Nano design process has been used in their development too.
Heuver Tyrewholesale will give particular attention to the Aeolus and Barkley brands at Agritechnica in Hannover (10-14 November). Aeolus exclusive to Heuver in certain European markets, while the Barkley brand is fully exclusive across the region. Heuver will be located in Hall 22 A14a.
Josh Brookes’ coronation as 2015 MCE British Superbike Champion at Brands Hatch was aided by the softer (SC0) Pirelli Diablo Superbike rear tyre at Brands Hatch. The Australian rider used the tyre to gain pole position and two race wins in different conditions, achieving fast laps beyond the mid-point in the races.
The Maxxis Premitra HP5 was named ‘Tyre of the Year’ at the 2015 Motor Trend magazine award ceremony in Shanghai in August. The new tyre is not available in the UK yet, but is expected to arrive on these shores in the first quarter of 2016 when it will be exclusively distributed by Stapleton’s. Maxxis reports that it made the decision to initially launch the HP5 tyre in China in May due to the size and therefore importance of the Chinese market.
Pirelli’s new website has gone live, giving the manufacturer a global platform for its marketing operations. The company said the website would feature its “many souls”: including products, competitions, business, sustainability, art and culture, and the Pirelli Calendar. It takes a narrative approach, using images, videos, and texts to recount stories, in Pirelli’s words, “accompanying the visitor/reader along a course of Pirelli discovery.” The new pirelli.com is designed to be a digital “magazine”, which will also feed into Pirelli’s social media channels. The project is capped by seven updated cover stories as the visitor navigates to the site.
The growth of R&J Strang Services’ fleet contract business is being supported by field data gathered via integrated digital tablet feeds, the company reveals. These were introduced by CAM as part of the tyre service provider’s investment in the UniSerV platform.
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