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Is Goodyear headed for European restructuring?

Recent reports published by financial analysts suggest Goodyear could be forced to restructure its business in the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
Reporting on an investor’s presentation given in Detroit, Deutsche Bank market watchers relayed that Goodyear cautioned that financial targets established two years ago – specifically US$1.6 billion segment operating income by 2013 – would be “difficult to achieve if current European market trends persist”.

16th January 2013/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo opens global R&D and branding centres

Apollo Tyres Ltd has opened a global R&D centre in Enschede, the Netherlands as well as a global branding centre in London, UK. Opened just days apart, the two moves follow earlier commitments to put European activities in the driving seat for passenger car tyre development and, in company chairman Onkar S Kanwar’s words, to fuse the company’s three cultures into one team. Hints towards increased OE activity and the potential of a more international investor base are also evident.

14th January 2013/by Tyrepress Editors

Bosch acquires SPX Service Solutions

Following approval by the antitrust authorities, Bosch completed its acquisition of SPX Service Solutions, a US automotive diagnostics specialist at the beginning of December 2012. The agreement to purchase the company was signed the preceding January. SPX Service Solutions develops, manufactures, and sells service equipment, repair-shop accessories, and software for the global automotive market. Based in Canton, MI (USA), SPX Service Solutions generated sales of some US$920 million (some 660 million euros) in 2011. The diagnostics specialist employs 2,800 associates in 17 countries, and has manufacturing sites in the US, Germany, France, and China. The purchase price was $1.15 billion (885 million euros).

7th January 2013/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti opens Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer

Continental has opened the first fully-automated tyre testing facility in the world at Contidrom, near Hanover. In addition to the ability to perform braking tests without drivers, helping to test consistently for longer hours, Conti has built a 300x30m air conditioned hall to house the Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA), reducing the influence of atmospheric conditions on test results. The manufacturer will also be able to control the friction coefficient, as the hall enables the company to switch the 75m surfaces used as a braking area, in addition to using a low temperature hall for testing on ice. The main hall is also fitted with a sprinkler system for wet testing. Conti estimates that the AIBA will perform around 100,000 braking procedures, on passenger car, van, and 4×4 summer and winter tyres, when fully operational.

3rd January 2013/by Tyrepress Editors

Birla shuts factory until year’s end

The Indo-Asia News Service reports that sluggish market conditions have prompted India’s Birla Tyres to temporarily stop operations at its Orissa state factory. The plant will remain closed until 31 December, an anonymous senior plant official told IANS. He added that Birla has stocks of almost 100,000 tyres that it is unable to sell. The company has reportedly stopped production for at least one week in every month since May due to low demand.

18th December 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo wins Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship award

In a ceremony held on the evening of 13 December, Apollo Tyres was conferred with Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards (AREA) 2012 South Asia. The company received this award in the Health Promotion category for its HIV-AIDS initiative. Sunam Sarkar, chief financial officer, Apollo Tyres Ltd received the award from the Enterprise Asia Team.

14th December 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Maxxis partners to expand retreading operation

Kian Hon Tyres Sdn. Bhd., the sole Malaysian distributor of the Maxxis tyre brand, is placing a greater focus on retreading the Taiwanese tyre maker’s products with the opening of an expanded retreading facility. The company says it has received the “full support and involvement” of Maxxis to construct a tread rubber production line and expand its retreading plant in Penang. Total capacity at the plant, which first entered operation in 1980, will increase to 120,000 retreads a year and 15,000 tread liners per month. The plant will be the primary retreading and tread liner production site for the Maxxis brand within the region.

13th December 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

KRT launches revamped kingsroadtyres.co.uk

Kings Road Tyres (KRT) has launched a new corporate website, bringing together its full portfolio of brands online for the first time. kingsroadtyres.co.uk is designed to allow customers to identify hundreds of applications for the Truck and Bus, Agricultural, Industrial and Construction, Consumer, OTR and High Speed Crane, Pneumatic Industrial and Tubes and Flaps ranges stocked by KRT. It also provides dealers with access to KRT’s online stock enquiry and ordering system and a facility to lodge trade enquiries.

11th December 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Mesnac establishes global sales and service network

International News, News

China’s Qingdao Mesnac Co., Ltd, the company said to be the world’s second largest supplier of tyre and rubber manufacturing equipment, has set up a new global sales and service network. Mesnac says rapid growth in China, Asia and internationally since the firm’s founding in 2000 made the establishment of the new Mesnac Global Sales and Marketing Company (SMC) necessary. Zheng Jiangjia, executive vice-president of Mesnac, has been appointed president of the new operation; Zheng will lead five regional sales and marketing teams, which will be located in China, Southeast Asia, India, Europe and North/Latin America.

11th December 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

KRT profiling Taurus at LAMMA 2013

Kings Road Tyres (KRT) has announced that it will open its 2013 programme of trade show and exhibition appearances at the two-day LAMMA show in Newark, Nottingham, on 16 and 17 January.

11th December 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

New factories, upgrades – Apollo discusses $1b investment

Apollo Tyres has disclosed further details about its global expansion plans. Speaking with news agency Press Trust of India, vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar referred to projects amounting to $US1 million. This investment will take place over the next half decade.

29th November 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Thrills and spills in Macau

International News, Motorsport

Three decades after Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama began supplying tyres to the Macau Grand Prix, the company returned to the glitz and glamour of what is the Chinese equivalent of Las Vegas to celebrate 30 years of partnership with the event. In order to mark the occasion, Tyres & Accessories was there to smell the rubber and witness the racing action as well as report on the race-to-road developments of the tyre supplier (see separate article in December's magazine for more on this).

28th November 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

European exhibitors increasing global visibility at Reifen China

At Reifen China Tyrepress.com spoke with three European wholesalers at the show, representing Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland. Deldo’s Rutger Veerman emphasised the importance of its connection with Asian markets, having sold Chinese brands for 15 years. Chinese products, including Minerva and Fortuna, made up half of the wholesaler’s eight million tyre sales in 2011, while Veerman says the increasing market for higher-end vehicles in Asia has in turn increased demand for premium brand tyres in the Asian replacement market. He said the company’s presence at the show was important in talking with suppliers and customers alike, emphasising Deldo’s “message to colleagues in China to consider strategy more”, since the control offered by private Deldo labels is attractive to “lots of customers”.

26th November 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess appoints new Central Eastern Europe CEO

As of 1 January 2013, graduate chemical engineer Wolfgang Heuchel will become the new CEO of Lanxess Central Eastern Europe s.r.o. The 57-year old will succeed Flemming B. Bjørnslev in the Bratislava, Slovakia-based role. Bjørnslev has been appointed president and CEO of Lanxess Corporation in the United States.

26th November 2012/by Tyrepress Editors

ASEAN first, then Europe – Apollo

During an interview with an Indian publication, Apollo Tyres’ chief of India operations commented on plans to establish a Greenfield plant in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region in the near future, while a factory in Eastern Europe may follow a couple of years later. Speaking with the Financial Chronicle, Satish Sharma said a favourable volume outlook was a key motivating factor behind the company’s plans in Asia.

26th November 2012/by Tyrepress Editors