Japan’s Asahi Kasei Chemicals has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new synthetic rubber plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island. The June 22 event marks the start of work on a facility expected to produce 50,000 tons of solution-polymerised styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) a year when the first stage work is complete in May 2013. Second stage work at the site, scheduled for completion in early 2015, should double annual output.
Truck and bus tyre production has commenced at Bridgestone’s Indore factory in India’s Madhya Pradesh State. The Bridgestone India facility, which has been producing passenger car tyres since 1998, was expanded to cater for the country’s growing demand for truck and bus radials through an Rs 1,700 million (£22.8 million) investment. Bridgestone India anticipates producing around 200 TBR tyres per day at the plant by the end of this year and twice that number by mid-2012.
Following a two year recession-related delay, plans for German specialty chemicals group Lanxess to transfer its corporate headquarters from Leverkusen to the nearby city of Cologne are back on track. More than 1,000 Lanxess employees will make the 15 kilometre move to a newly renovated 22-storey building in the second half of 2013; the new headquarters’ opening will bring almost all the company’s management functions under one roof.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber has reported record sales and higher unit volumes for the first quarter of 2011 – and a net profit for the quarter. The tyre maker’s first quarter 2011 net income was US$103 million, up from a net loss of $47 million for the same period in 2010.
On 14th April the new Hungarian Bandag franchise dealership, 5-Let Ltd., inaugurated its new retreading facility. Established with an investment of 2 million euros, the plant in the town of Mezőszilas began production on March 30 and is expected to produce 2,500 retreads this year; this number should double by 2013.
The promoter of the World Superbike Championship has launched a tender process for the championship’s tyre suppler in the 2013 to 2015 seasons, a role that is currently undertaken by Pirelli. Infront Motor Sports first announced the tender for the FIM Superbike and Supersport World Championships, the Superstock FIM Cup 1000 and the UEM Superstock 600 European Championship at the end of March.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has declared that he "wants London to be the electric car capital of Europe." He was speaking as Jon Goodman, MD of Peugeot UK, presented him with an all-electric Peugeot iOn.
The iOn, which is one of the first zero-emission tailpipe emissions cars to go on general sale, had just finished a whirlwind tour of major Peugeot dealerships in the UK.
Goodyear chairman and CEO Richard J Kramer says that the company has “a clear view of our destination as a business and well-defined strategies for driving value” as it strategises its path back to profit, having posted net losses of $216 million and $375 million in 2010 and 2009 respectively. The company believes that what it terms “seven MegaTrends” over the next five years to a decade will favour its approach, which includes a focus on high-profit segments. The company is holding an investor conference in New York today to discuss how to meet its target of $1.6 billion operating profit – a would-be record for the company – by 2013. The company also announced an operating income target of $450 million in 2013 for the North American Tire segment, as well as improved margins worldwide.
Maxxis International’s involvement in motorcycle motorsport continues in 2011 with a renewal of its association with two factory teams. The company will continue as headline sponsor of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship until the end of the 2013 season and has renewed its partnership with Lincolnshire-based Maxxis Henderson LPE Kawasaki. The team, says Maxxis International, is going from strength to strength with rising Estonian MX1 star Gert Krestinov signing up for his second season in the UK as part of the Official Kawasaki Motors UK motocross team.
Radialisation is taking root in India’s commercial vehicle tyre market, and Bridgestone is taking steps to secure its share of this potentially huge market. At a the opening of a Bridgestone Fleet Point outlet in Chennai on October 11, the managing director of Bridgestone India confirmed the tyre maker was on target to begin truck and bus radial production next May. Initial TBR manufacture will take place at Bridgestone’s Kheda plant in Madhya Pradesh state, where truck radial capacity is being added through a US$36.7 million investment. Daily production will start at 200 units and almost double within a year.
As of 2011, tyre supply to the FIA World Rally Championship is will be open to any tyre manufacturer. On June 23 the FIA gave public notice that the regulations covering tyre supply have been amended to “control costs”. These altered regulations will be presented to the World Motor Sport Council for a fax vote before July 20. The FIA Junior World Rally Championship will, however, continue with a single tyre supplier.
The final workshop for the 'Tyre and road surface optimisation for skid resistance and further effects' coordination action, a project thankfully more commonly known by the acronym TYROSAFE, will take place in Brussels, Belgium on June 10, 2010. The workshop will feature the development, assessment and final results of the TYROSAFE project.
The FIA has extended its World Rally Championship (WRC) control tyre deal with Pirelli for another year, reportedly enabling it to take another year to decide whether or not to open up the series up to competing tyre makers in 2012. Pirelli was the only firm to tender for the 2011-2013 contract, but Autosport reported that the FIA and Pirelli reached a “single season solution” in talks.
The Da Nang Rubber Joint Stock Company, a subsidiary of the Viet Nam Chemical Group, reports its Board of Directors has approved a project to build a radial truck tyre factory capable of producing 600,000 tyres per annum. The plant, located on a 106,600 square metre site in the Lien Chieu Industrial Zone near Da Nang City, will be competed in stages – the factory is anticipated to enter operation in 2011, with work on the second stage being carried out in 2012 and 2013.
Reports on Wednesday 3 February suggest that Pirelli is about to be confirmed as the tyre supplier for the World Rally Championship after its current deal runs out at the end of the 2010 season. An anonymous source for Autosport's report suggests that the Italian manufacturer is in fact “the only firm in the running for the contract. We saw that when the envelope with the tenders in was opened last year.” Autosport also states that the value of the company’s bid is likely to be some way short of the 11 million euros paid as part of the current three-year deal. The final decision will be made at a World Motorsport Council meeting in March.
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