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Maxxis Opens Dubai Office

In order to provide better customer service in the Middle East and Africa regions, Maxxis has opened an a new office in Dubai, which will take on the responsibility for sales, marketing and customer service for the two regions.

Maxxis views the opening of the Dubai office as a continuation of its work towards building its business in a region with tremendous potential for growth. The new venture also expands the company’s international reach: Maxxis sells to more than 130 countries around the world including the Middle East and Africa.

Maxxis International Middle East & Africa can be contacted by mail at LB15417, 4th floor, LOB 15, Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai, UAE; by telephone at +971 4 8875354; and by fax at +971 4 8875355.

17th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo a Recommended Buy – Broker

The online stock broking firm India Infoline has indicated that Apollo Tyres is a prudent share purchase, and has placed a recommended buy rating on the stock with a target of Rs 397 (£4.74). India Infoline describes Apollo as the leading commercial vehicle tyre player in India and adds that the company is expanding at a rapid pace, both organically and inorganically. The brokerage firm expects Apollo’s topline and bottom line to grow by 14.3 per cent and 26.2 per cent respectively between the 2006 and 2009 financial years.

Apollo is expanding passenger car tyre capacity by 1,100,000 units and light commercial tyre capacity by 100,000 units by the end of the 2007 financial year, increasing total production to 410 tonnes per day. To add to the tyremaker’s sharemarket desirability, Apollo have also recently commenced production of its Dura Tyre range of retreads, scheduled for initial launch in northern India in May 2007.

17th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Hayes Lemmerz SA Earns Top Toyota Supplier Award

Hayes Lemmerz International’s aluminium wheel manufacturing facility in Alrode, South Africa has received Toyota South Africa Motors Ltd.’s highest level of recognition – the overall 2006 Supplier of the Year Award. In selecting Hayes Lemmerz for the award, Toyota South Africa cited the company for its continued high level of performance in all areas. In addition to the 2006 Supplier of the Year Award, Hayes Lemmerz received special recognition in the categories of Delivery and Quality Performance.

“We are honoured to be named a Supplier of the Year by this important customer,” said Trevor Volek, managing director of Hayes Lemmerz South Africa Operations. “Our highest priority is ensuring that our customers’ strict performance standards are met and exceeded.”

16th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

South African Govt. “Not Interested” in Tyre Safety

According to a representative from South Africa’s SA Tyre Recycling Process Company, the nation’s Department of Transport and the South African Bureau of Standards are “not interested” in setting standards to ensure that all second-hand tyres sold are safe. This apparent lack of interest comes despite statistics showing approximately 25 per cent of all road accidents in South Africa are caused by sub-standard tyres.

Speaking at a waste management summit in Cape Town, Etienne Human from the SA Tyre Recycling Process Company made reference to the results a recent survey. These results indicated that 80 per cent of tyres were unfit for further service when removed from a vehicle. However instead of being scrapped many of these tyres were instead re-sold, often at the side of the road, and quickly resumed their working life on South African roads.

16th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Metamorphosis

India’s tyre industry is steadily coming of age. In a country whose new car market has witnessed phenomenal changes since the days when consumer choice was more or less restricted to what colour Hindustan Ambassador one would purchase, the tyres made and sold have also needed to change with the times, both in quantity and quality.

Figures released by India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) report steady growth in tyre production figures across all market segments, with an overall 12 per cent growth to January 2007, with approximately 61 million tyres produced during the preceding 12 months. During February 2007 alone 5.9 million tyres were produced, with 1.18 million of these for passenger cars. And although other segments showed even greater growth – tractor tyre sales in February were on average more than 25 per cent greater than a year earlier – the passenger car market seems to be where all the action is taking place.

13th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear South Africa to Supply OE for New Hummer

Right hand drive versions of GM’s Hummer H3, including those destined for the UK market, will be exclusively shod with products from the Goodyear stable. The right hand drive H3 is scheduled to enter production at GM’s Port Elizabeth, South Africa facility in mid-April, and all vehicles will be fitted with locally produced Goodyear Wrangler tyres. Production of left hand drive export models began last year.

The tyre fitted to the H3 is also currently manufactured by Goodyear North America for US built Hummers. According to Goodyear equipment national manager Norman Newcombe, Goodyear’s factory in Uitenhage, South Africa is one of only two facilities in the world manufacturing this particular tyre – the P256/R16 Wrangler RT/S. Mr. Newcombe added he was “thrilled” that the Uitenhage factory had been chosen to supply the H3.

“The decision is a vote of confidence in Goodyear SA‘s capabilities and facilities,” Newcombe said. He added that because production of this sort of tyre was new to the plant, significant investment had gone into production equipment and staff training.

13th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Private Brands and More

Five short years after its inception, Shanghai Durotyre International, whose main business is the contract manufacture of private brands, has offices in China, the UK, South Africa, Lebanon and the USA. At this year’s Brityrex the company will be promoting its private brands Pace, Duration and Agrostar.

Pace, manufactured by Cooper Chengshan, is available in over 100 passenger car and truck sizes. Further UHP and SUV additions to the range will be introduced later in the year, with a winter range also planned for 2008. Duration is an extensive bias OTR range, and in the near future production of radials will commence, with 2700R49, 3300R51, 3600R51, 3700R57 and 4000R57 sizes available. Agrostar is a comprehensive range of mainly agricultural tyres.

2nd April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Sameer Africa Reports Losses

Sameer Africa recently announced that it had accrued 22 million Kenyan shillings (£164,000) of losses after sales were hit by a sudden influx low price imported tyres. Speaking during the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the firm’s Mombasa Road Plant, Sameer Africa Board Chairman Naushad Merali said the sales nosedive of locally manufactured tyres followed the reduction of imported tyre tariffs from 35 to 10 per cent. Merali however noted that the fact Bridgestone has not withdrawn its 14.5 per cent share-holding in the company was a sign of Bridgestone’s confidence in Sameer Africa’s potential.

According to local news sources, Sameer has made “strategic alliances” with other international tyre manufacturers to increase its product offering in the regional market. The Kenya times reported that this includes off-take agreements with brands such as Bridgestone, Dunlop South Africa and Hankook.

30th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Opens Middle East Truck Tyre Centre

On March 26 Bridgestone Middle East & Africa celebrated the inauguration of the Gulf region’s first of its kind truck tyre centre. Situated in the Ghala area of Muscat, Oman, the centre accommodates facilities for truck tyre fitting, balancing, wheel alignment and repairs, as wheel as passenger car tyre fitting. The centre has been established in conjunction with Towell Auto Centre, Bridgestone’s sole representative in Oman.

“It is a historic moment for Bridgestone Middle East & Africa and Towell Auto Centre to have the Truck Tyre Centre established in Oman,” said Bridgestone Middle East & Africa president Yujiro Kanahara. “It gives me great pride to be able to witness such a facility being extended to the people of Oman. World over, Bridgestone’s performance has been momentous and this occasion not only reinforces the bond between Bridgestone and Towell Auto Centre but also strengthens our stride to greater success.”

28th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

New Dunlop SP Sport FastResponse in ADAC Test Success

Only days after its official launch, Goodyear Dunlop has released details of the new Dunlop SP Sport FastResponse’s recent success in German ADAC tests. ADAC, the German equivalent of the AA, awarded the FastResponse with the top “highly recommendable” grade in its 2007 summer tyre test. The ADAC testers said they were impressed most impressed with the tyre’s performance on both wet and dry roads.

23rd March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Defend UK Product Rights

At the end of February Goodyear Dunlop released details of its campaign to “to protect UK customers from unknowingly buying tyres that were not designed for road conditions in this market.” As a result of this campaign, three companies have submitted to a high court injunction and have had to send 600 Dunlop tyres for recycling, to prevent these tyres from being used on UK roads. According to the company, this is the start of an initiative to remove unapproved tyres from the EU market.

The Goodyear Dunlop campaign targets all unauthorised imported tyres bearing the famous Dunlop and SP trademarks, but designed for their local markets, and not imported or recommended by the UK company. The company found that a number of these tyres originate from, and were designed for, Asian markets.

Apollo Tyres Ltd bought Dunlop Tyres International (Pty) Ltd (Dunlop South Africa) for US$62 million in January 2006.

22nd March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Shares Rise as Sale of Division Draws Closer

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. shares rose more than 6 per cent on March 19 following a ratings upgrade stemming from the anticipated announcement that the company will sell its engineered products division. According to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Saul Ludwig, the sale of the division could be announced in April. “Industry contacts tell us that a deal could be announced within the next 30 days and the selling price could top the $1 billion that is widely expected,” he reported.

Ludwig raised his rating on the US tyre major to “buy” from “hold,” citing the possibility of the sale of this unit plus that of Goodyear’s global off-road, aircraft, or international farm tyre businesses, as well as plant closures in Europe, Asia and South Africa, other cost cuts and an equity offering of at least US$1 billion.

20th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Federal Tyres Looks to Middle East Markets

Taiwanese tyremaker Federal Tyres has entered into an agreement with Dubai-based tyre distributor Al Saeedi Middle East to import tyres into the United Arab Emirates, a market into which more than six million tyres are imported each year.

Federal Corporation president Chen Da stated that not only have the levels of imports entering the UAE been growing annually, but the country is also an important re-export hub for global tyre manufacturers. “So we believe it is time to strengthen our presence in the UAE as well as in other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries in association with a strong local partner. In Al Saeedi Middle East, which has more than two decades of excellent track-record in the UAE tyre business, we have found a strategic partner.”

19th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Tiwheel Results Show Headline Loss

South African alloy wheel maker Tiwheel (Tiger Wheels Limited), majority shareholder in ATS Light Alloy Wheels, have reported £0.085 in headline loss per share for the interim six month period ending December compared with headline earnings per share of £0.046 the same time last year. The company’s revenue grew from 1.17 billion rand (£77.8 million) to 1.60 billion rand (£111.4 million) while 30.3 million rand (£2.1 million) was reported in operating loss compared with 8.6 million rand (£598,700).

Tiwheel has described the results as ‘disappointing’ and attributed them mainly to an accumulation of problems at its Kentucky, USA, facility. The problems referred to occurred at the Kentucky plant in November and December 2006 and according to the group were caused by a combination of management mistakes and market circumstances.

16th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Borbet acquires Remaining Share in South African Subsidiary

In December 2006 the South African engineering and construction group Murray & Roberts announced that it wished to dispose of its 50 per cent share in alloy wheel manufacturer Borbet South Africa, based in Port Elizabeth. Now the recently released business half-year financial report for Murray and Roberts, ending December 31, 2006 indicates that the German Borbet Group has since this time itself acquired Murray & Roberts’ share.

The 50 per cent parcel was the remaining portion of the former alloy wheel company Alloy Wheels International. The Borbet Group purchased a 50 per cent share in the South African company on July 1, 2003 and took over management of the company.

14th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors