Africa
On March 19 Apollo Tyres South Africa announced plans to invest R300 million (£27 million) in new equipment and technology for the company’s facilities in Durban and Ladysmith. The upgrades will be implemented over a three-year period.
Tire Review reports the appointment of two new chiefs at Goodyear and Toyo in the US. Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing has promoted Allan Huggins to CFO and senior director of finance and accounting. Huggins joined Toyo in 2005 most recently served as director of finance and purchasing. Meanwhile, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co has promoted Jim McKinnon to vice president and chief information officer.
Over the next year Continental Tyre South Africa intends to invest around ZAR100 million (£8.9 million) to increase production capacity and equip its Port Elizabeth factory to produce ranges that are in demand. “There is a big demand in South Africa for the off-road and 4×4 type tyres and there is some new ranges coming into South Africa over the next two years and we have picked up a lot of this business," he said,” commented Wayne Brown, general manager of Manufacturing. Brown added that Conti's South African produced 4×4 tyres are also sought after in global markets, such as Australia. “This is where we will be focusing our attention,” he commented.
Fancy winning tickets to the World Cup host nation this summer? Continental Tyres are challenging customers to put their football knowledge to the test and win prizes including a holiday to South Africa for two. Continental Tyres, Official Sponsor of the 2010 World Cup, has launched the Continental 2010 World Cup Game Predictor as a free iPhone app. Launched this month, the new app sets you the challenge of predicting the scores for every match – with the best pundits being in with the chance to win exclusive prizes.
During the company’s 2009 full financial year conference call on March 10, Pirelli Tyre CEO Dr. Francesco Gori discussed a number of plans for this and the coming year. “Our strategic guidelines for 2010 confirm our strategic positioning in line with our business plan,” he stated. “And the distinctive strategic features are focused on the strong and truly global brand that made us improve once more our position in the top consumer segments. It selected exposure in emerging markets with a focus on Latin America, where we are clearly number one, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Our expectation for 2010 is to further improve our revenues in the industrial business by fully exploiting the potentials in those geographies.”
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co’s chairman and outgoing chief executive of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. received a pay package worth as much as US$17.196 million in 2009. While Keegan’s “non-equity incentive plan compensation” virtually doubled from $4.6 million to $9.514 million during the period, total pay was only 5.39 per cent up on the $16.317 million he received last year. In 2008 Keegan’s package was worth $23.6 million, according to company’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
Some 18 million truck and bus tyres are said to be retreaded in North America each year and a further nine million in South America, and to meet growing demand for the raw materials used in retreading both within the region and worldwide, Lanxess’s Performance Butadiene Rubbers (PBR) business unit is “considering the possibility” of manufacturing ESBR-BMB (emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber black masterbatch) in Brazil in the future. Options for doing so at its Triunfo or Caxias production sites are currently being examined.
Despite what it describes as a “severely deteriorating market”, Conti reports that over the last year its original equipment passenger car tyre market share within the European Union region remained unchanged. With a production figure of 24.4 million units, Continental was able to maintain its market share of 32 per cent, and new original equipment supplies have been arranged with, amongst others, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz AMG, Ford and Renault.
Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH has awarded the account for its tyre advertising in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to a new agency, Serviceplan. The Hamburg, Germany based agency beat three competitors to secure the account on the merits of what Conti calls its “highly emotive” campaign concept, which focused on the safety aspects of Continental passenger car tyres.
During a presentation at the Geneva Motor Show, Goodyear Dunlop’s Michel Rzonzef referred to recent societal changes and evolving consumer needs as an “opportunity for companies like Goodyear Dunlop to do what we have been doing over the last one hundred years, to be at the forefront of the industry, to drive innovation and drive change.” This innovation and change, the EMEA business unit’s president for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa said, will come through the development and introduction of new products that focus on two key areas.
During the previous three years Alliance Tire has invested US$300 million in the company’s further development. This sizeable sum has been directed into several key projects. The highest profile of these, of course, has been last December’s acquisition of certain GPX assets, including the Galaxy and Primex OTR tyre brands. A specific focus has also been placed upon Alliance’s principal market of Europe: In December Alliance Tire Europe BV’s new headquarters was opened, and several weeks later Alliance Tire announced the appointment of a new president for the operation, former head of Goodyear industrial, farm and OTR tyre initiatives for the Middle East and Africa region, Manuel Pintado. Recently Tyres & Accessories paid Alliance Tire’s new European headquarters in Halsteren, the Netherlands a visit to hear Mr. Pintado’s views on Alliance’s recent activities and where the company plans to go from here.
Hayes Lemmerz International has announced that its Hayes Lemmerz Holding GmbH organisation in Germany has received an “A” level performance rating from Audi Ingolstadt for supplier project development and project engineering in connection with steel wheels produced for Audi at the wheel manufacturer’s plants in Manresa, Spain and Manisa, Turkey.
Continental has extended its sponsorship of international football events with a deal to become the Exclusive Tyre Partner and Official Sponsor of 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. “With preparation for activation of our sponsoring of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa going ahead at full steam, we have already laid the ground for worldwide marketing communication in the next few years by renewing the FIFA partnership through 2014,” explained Nikolai Setzer, Continental Executive Board member for Passenger and Light Truck Tyres.
An anticipated increase in demand within Africa and the expectation of growing OE sales in Europe have led Apollo Tyres to plan capacity increases in these two regions. The Wall Street Journal reports the company’s South African activities involve the investment of US$30 million this year at its two Dunlop facilities there in order to boost passenger car radial capacity from 10,000 units per day to 12,500, while truck and bus tyre capacity is to be lifted from the current daily level of 800 units to between 1,200 and 1,500 tyres.
Israel based supplier of pre-owned tyre and rubber industry machinery Pelmar Engineering Ltd. recently announced its Group Board has nominated Hagai Peled to take over the role of managing director, a position he commences following “five years of successful management positions in various departments.” In February the son of company founder Jacob Peled visited Germany to attend both the Tire Technology Expo and a meeting of Pelmar Engineering managers from around the world. During the exhibition he gave an overview of Pelmar’s global business and the options it provides for tyre businesses wishing to set up or expand.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
