Toyo driver Masato Kawabata has won the 2013 D1 Grand Prix Series overall championship as well as the tan-sou championship. In the finale of six rounds of the 2013 D1 Grand Prix Series, held on November 9 at a specially built course in Odaiba, Tokyo, Masato Kawabata unleashed a powerful driving performance in the tan-sou finale contested by the top 16 racers.
On 6 November, Titan International completed the previously announced redemption of the outstanding US$137,681,000 aggregate principal in its ‘7.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2017’. The company redeemed the notes at a price of $1,059.06 for each $1,000 principal amount, or approximately $145.8 million in total, plus approximately $1.1 million of unpaid interest accrued to the redemption date. Titan says it did not incur any early termination penalties in connection with the redemption of the notes beyond the premium reflected in the redemption price, as described above.
Cooper Tire will be the official tyre of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) for the 2013-2014 season. The newly-announced partnership will see the tyre maker gain a “strong presence” at several CHL national series; Cooper says the partnership supports the company’s brand expansion into the Canadian market and is a “logical extension” of its Canadian market focus.
Karlheinz Haupt (56) is now head of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Business Unit in Continental’s Chassis & Safety Division, effective 1 November 2013. He succeeds Friedrich Angerbauer (49) who has been appointed Head of Purchasing for the Chassis & Safety Division. The business unit is headquartered in Lindau, Germany.
Pirelli has signed an extension to its supply of the Mini Challenge. The tyre supplier, which has original equipment deals to supply its P Zero and Cinturato tyres to the road-going Mini Countryman and Mini Cooper S, will supply both the Cooper class and the turbo-charged John Cooper Works class throughout 2014, the series’ 13th year. The series organiser said it had agreed to place controls on tyre usage in conjunction with the tyre supplier, with the aim of keeping down the cost of competing.
Czech manufacturer of steel pallets and tyre racks Avex is now operating under a slightly altered name: Avex Steel Products s.r.o. The change of name has also signalled another change for the firm; Avex is now operating with a new website at www.avexproducts.com.
During the third quarter of 2013, net sales at Nexen Tire Corporation declined 2.9 per cent to KRW 438.5 billion (£253.9 million), the company reports. Gross profit rose 3.6 per cent compared with a year earlier to KRW 124.7 billion (£72.2 million) while operating profit was 12.1 per cent down at KRW 46.3 billion (£26.8 million). EBITDA was 3.1 per cent lower at KRW 71.9 billion (£41.6 million), with the margin stable at 16.4 per cent.
Michelin says it wants its employees to be “more closely associated with the Group’s future growth and development”, and therefore the company is carrying out an offering of shares reserved for current employees of the company and those companies in which Michelin holds at least 50 per cent share capital. The share offer will be conducted in accordance with the conditions set out in the French Labor Code and the French Code of Commerce and is open to employees who are members of the Plan d’Epargne Groupe (Group Savings Plan).
A merger-facilitating deal has been struck between Cooper Tire & Rubber and the United Steelworkers Union. On 30 October, the tyre maker entered into a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers and United Steelworkers (USW) Local 207L (representing workers at the company’s Findlay plant) and Local 752L (Texarkana), along with USW Local 556L (Clarksdale). Details of the tentative agreement have not yet been disclosed –the agreement must first meet with Apollo’s approval and be ratified by union members.
Bridgestone key accounts manager Peter Dickson will run the New York marathon this weekend, hoping to raise more than £500 for the Action Medical Research charity. The run will have been three years in the making for Dickson, having originally applied in 2010.
India’s Ceat Limited has reported a nine per cent growth in year-on-year revenues for the quarter ending 30 September 2013. On a standalone basis, revenues in this second quarter of the company’s financial year rose to Rs 12.63 billion (£127.6 million). Pre-tax profit rose from Rs 41 million in the second quarter of 2012 to Rs 1.1 billion (£11.1 million) in the most recent quarter. EBITDA for the second quarter of the 2014 financial year stood at 13.1 per cent, compared with 6.7 per cent in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
While UK car output provided good news for the industry, commercial vehicles remained in steep decline, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders figures show. CV output dropped 27.5 per cent in September to 6,963 units, meaning 67,609 CVs have been produced in 2013 to date, down 17.9 per cent from 2012.
Kumho Tyres awarded Kindlington Guides £5,000 in its second annual Cash for Causes competition. More than 400 charities and good causes signed up for the tyre manufacturer’s online public voting contest, sharing a fund of £100,000.
Reuters is reporting union leaders at a closed Goodyear plant in northern France have agreed to talks with Morry Taylor, Titan International chairman and CEO. Taylor infamously said earlier in 2013 that the plant wasn’t worth saving, but reports suggest he is reconsidering his abandoned takeover bid for the plant. The French union wants give their demands directly to Taylor in his US office, Tire Review reports.
In a press statement dated 21 October, Pirelli & C. SpA shares that the leadership of its Shareholder Block Agreement met that day and decided, at the proposal of Marco Tronchetti Provera, to mandate Alessandro Pedersoli to launch consultations amongst all shareholders belonging to the Shareholder Block Agreement ahead of its expiry on 15 April 2014, with a view to evaluating the possibility of its early dissolution.
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