Africa
Stéphane Peterhansel in his ALL 4 Racing Mini completed victory in the Dakar rally, aided by American tyre brand, BFGoodrich, recording its twelfth Dakar win – its tenth in a row. The rally finished in Lima, Peru on Sunday, with Peterhansel taking his personal score on the event to 10 wins. BFGoodrich’s maiden Dakar success was in 1999, and the American tyre brand, which belongs to the Michelin group, hasn’t been beaten on the off-road rally since 2002.
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Cooper Tire Europe says it has expanded its involvement in endurance rallying, with its 4×4 products victorious in two high-profile events this month. In the Dakar, Spaniard Xavier Foj won the T2 production class in his Discoverer S/T MAXX-shod Toyota Land Cruiser 150. Meanwhile, ex-Formula 1 driver and endurance rally veteran, Jean-Louis Schlesser, won his fourth consecutive Africa Eco Race, using Cooper’s Discoverer STT tyre for the first time.
Brand representatives report that since its launch in 2005, Zeetex has developed a strong reputation for quality assurance, safety and compliance with environmental requirements, and holds an impressive range of certifications. However, manufacturing body ETRMA found at least one Zeetex branded tyre that was non-REACH compliant was found on the European market in March this year. However, speaking in a recent interview with Tyres & Accessories, the global product manager of Zeetex at Zafco, Zafar Jafri, explained explained the company’s perspective on this issue: “ETRMA found a so-called ‘dirty’ tyre. At that time we were running two production lines (one for international sales and one for Europe).” Explaining that the tyre question was certainly not intended for the European market, Jafri continued by pointing out that the mishandling that led to the aforementioned tyre’s arrival in the European Union could only have come as a result of the mishandling at the factory’s warehouse, similarly unintentional mishandling at Zafco’s distribution centre or via grey-imports.
South Africa is on the verge of introducing a levy on all tyres manufactured in, or imported into the country in order to finance the creation of a waste tyre collection network. REDISA (Recycling Economic Development Initiative of South Africa) is a government approved scheme to establish a sustainable waste tyre collection infrastructure for South Africa. The financial levy of Rand 2.3 (0.22 Euros) per kilogram of manufactured or imported product, will apply to all tyres, including those fitted to imported equipment, from the beginning of February this year.
One particular newcomer at last year’s Reifen China, was Anhui Daree Rubber Corporation Ltd. Eager to find out more about the largest of this year’s show debutants, Tyres & Accessories spoke to JoJo Zhao and Vicky Shaw of the company’s global trade department and Lydia Cheung from the Daree’s sales department.
Formed in June 2010, Daree Rubber is a subsidiary operation of the Daree petrochemical group Daree Enterprise Group owned by Bajie Hua and is located in SanShan District, Wuhu City, Anhui Province. Like many newcomers before it, the business has ambitious plans to produce millions of truck and bus radial tyres within two years of formation, followed by the addition of passenger car radials to the range later in 2012 – all under the snappy motto of “pursuit to be perfect.”
Henry Johnson has been appointed Goodyear Dunlop’s EMEA vice president, Emerging Markets, leading “the strategic growth and development of the company’s complete product range in South Africa, Turkey, Middle East, Russia and the Nordic countries.” Johnson was previously responsible for the Commercial Product business unit.
Goodyear Dunlop has announced its appointment of Michel Rzonzef as the new vice president of its EMEA Commercial Sales and Marketing Product business unit, responsible for “driving a single aligned strategy and operating plan for commercial vehicle tyres”, according to the company’s announcement.
As of 1 January Marc Preedy will take over from Nigel Sowerby as Goodyear Dunlop’s Commercial business unit director for the UK and Ireland. In announcing the customer strategy manager’s promotion, Goodyear Dunlop states the appointment “recognises Marc’s major contribution to the business since his recruitment just two years ago.”
Fulda has announced the upcoming launch of its new high performance summer tyre, the EcoControl HP. The range will be introduced in time for the 2012 season and be available in 22 dimensions for 15 and 16-inch rim diameters. The tyre maker says the EcoControl HP is designed to take “meet both dry and wet conditions in its stride”; in September-October 2011 the new tyre was extensively tested against three competitor tyres by the independent testing and certification organisation TÜV SÜD Automotive, and was found to be a “well balanced performance tyre.”
The fifth Reifen China exhibition which took place in the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center on 22 – 24 November 2011 reportedly “registered a plus in all the sections”, according to show organisers Messe Essen and the China United Rubber Corporation. Official figures released by the two companies show that 11,255 trade visitors (20 per cent more than in the previous year) from 77 countries were present to order and obtain information about everything to do with tyres, wheels and garage equipment at the trade fair. And this emphatically answers the question posed by Tyres & Accessories preview of the show – Will 10,000 attend Reifen China this year?
In recent times the Starco name has been no stranger to the pages of Tyres & Accessories and tyrepress.com; much has been happening within the Danish company. Indeed, in the last few years we have witnessed Starco’s development from a Europe-focused small wheel specialist into a wheel and tyre manufacturer with global ambitions. Yet this transformation is just the latest chapter in the history of a company that, as of 11 December, has been in business for fifty years. To mark the company’s golden anniversary, Tyres & Accessories recently spoke with Starco chief executive officer Peer Ejlersgaard, who gave an insight into where the company has been and where it plans to go.
Mitas, a leading OE supplier of off-road tyres, has announced plans to acquire Tribatyre, headquartered in Uden in The Netherlands. According to the company, Tribatyre and Mitas plan to sign the purchase agreement on 8 December with the contract set to take effect 1 January 2012. Mitas reports that opening its new sales distribution office and warehouse in Uden will improve services and increase market share in the Netherlands and Belgium. The announcement was made at Agribex, the leading Belgian farming fair.
Due to continued high raw material and energy costs, Continental is increasing the price of its summer passenger car tyres in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The price rise takes effect on 1 January, 2012; from this date Continental brand tyres will cost between three and four per cent more while prices for the Uniroyal, Semperit and Barum brands will increase by three to six per cent.
On 1 November NDI A/S appointed Tyre Cat (Girona) as exclusive Nordexx distributor in Spain including. As well as mainland Spain the distributorship also includes Andorra, Melilla, Ceuta, the Canary Islands and the Baleares Islands. NDI reports that Tyre Cat has already shown “big potential” and has been distributing Nordexx since mid 2011.
In an interview with the Hindu Business Line, Apollo Tyres vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar stated he expects to see more gains like those the company experienced in Europe during the second quarter of the financial year. “The trend will continue, Kanwar told the paper. “Already we are seeing good growth even in Q3. In fact, in Europe, Q3 will be much better than Q2, both on sales and profitability.”
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