Asia
MRF moves up three rank positions from 2005 to rank highest in customer satisfaction in the JD Power Asia Pacific 2006 India Original Tire Customer Satisfaction Index (TCSI) Study. This is the fourth time MRF has ranked highest in the study. The study, now in its sixth year, analyzes perceptions of new-vehicle buyers on five critical factors: appearance of tyre, durability of tyres, ride quality, traction and handling.
Response to Tyrexpo Africa 2006 has surpassed all expectations and the show is now 75 per cent sold out. The enthusiasm and support received by both national and international exhibitors have far exceeded the organisers’ expectations. With five months still to go 30 per cent of exhibitors originate from South Africa and the sub African continent whilst 70 per cent are from overseas. Although many of these companies hail from Europe, there will be exhibitors from North and South America, Asia and the Far East at Tyrexpo Africa.
Bosch has reached a production milestone by announcing that it has produced 20 million Electronic Stability Program (ESP) systems since the technology was developed just over a decade ago. The company makes braking control systems at seven plants in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The active safety system detects the onset of skidding in a vehicle and works to counter it without any action by the driver. Recently published studies prove that car driver whose vehicle are fitted cause accidents much more rarely. If every new car were to be fitted with ESP, the number of “single vehicle accidents” resulting in serious injury could be reduced by up to 50 percent.
From 1st April 2006, Takashi Urano becomes Chairman, CEO and President of Bridgestone Europe (BSEU). He succeeds Minekazu Fujimura, who is retiring. Mr. Urano joined Bridgestone in 1974, soon after graduating in economics from Keio University, Japan. By 1999, he had risen to become General Manager of the Asia and Oceania Division – and, a few months later, took over as General Manager of the China Department. At the beginning of 2004, he was appointed Director of the Middle East, Africa and Russia Division.
Tyre output in Japan rose 0.3 per cent year on year in February for the first time in three months, with domestic demand rising 0.5 per cent. Export volumes declined 5.2 per cent YoY in February (which fell for the first time in 20 months in January). Analysts attribute the decline to three main factors; firstly, unusual demand for studless tires, which they believe has led makers to divert output to domestic demand, and which they also believe has now run its course.
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announced a series of personnel changes in its R&D group. Lyn Lovell, previously director of government compliance and product performance, was named director of global technology planning, a new position created to “increase the speed at which new products get to market, maintain technical leadership, and ensure alignment with business needs,” according to Goodyear.
(Akron/Tire Review) The fourth annual China International Tire Expo (CITExpo), which will be held 6-8 September at the Shanghai Everbright Exhibition Center in Shanghai, China, is expected to be a great success, with 200 exhibitors showcasing their latest products and technology in 8,000 square meters of exhibition space.
For the second year in a row, Tire Review serves as the exclusive US media sponsor for CITExpo. Other key media supporters include Tire Review partners Tyres & Accessories and Rubber Asia.
Kwik-Fit Group has announced that it has appointed David Reid as Chairman. Reid, who is the Chairman of Tesco PLC and a Non-Executive Director of Reed Elsevier Group plc, will take up this new appointment with immediate effect.
US companies Startech Environmental Corp. and Future Fuels (FFI) in the building of FFI’s own $84 million Waste-to-Ethanol Facility to be constructed in Toms River, New Jersey. “An important fact sometimes overlooked is that waste is an inexhaustible, renewable, ever-recurring resource.”
Joseph F. Longo, Startech Environmental Corp., president Startech also received the Letter of Intent from FFI for FFI’s purchase of a 100 ton-per-day Startech Plasma Converter System (PCS) for installation in the Waste-to-Ethanol Facility in Toms River, scheduled to go online in late 2007. Plans call for the Toms River Facility expansion to include a series of additional Startech PCSs.
The alloy wheel aftermarket in the UK has seen a number of changes over the past decade many of which are continuing today. If we go back 10 years, the majority of the wheels sold were sold by tyre dealers. Admittedly, not every tyre dealer felt comfortable selling alloys and many shied away from what they perceived as potential technical problems, but for those who did, it was a nice little earner. The market potential was not lost on the Auto Accessory stores and they began to make inroads.
What was worse from the tyre dealers’ viewpoint was that the Auto Accessory stores more often than not offered a wheel and tyre package, so not only was the tyre dealer losing the wheel sale, but the tyre sale as well. One of the people who supplied information for this article – and I pass on my thanks to those who contributed, whether they asked remain anonymous or not – estimated that nine out of 10 Auto Accessory store sales were wheel and tyre packages, with customers either fitting the wheels themselves, or going to local garages for fitment. Apart from the loss of business for tyre shops, fitting tyres at home offers potential for incorrect fitments, wrong sizes and so on.
(India/Rubber Asia) At the end of what seems like an agonizingly endless wait, the gates of the Dunlop factory at Sahagunj, in the eastern State of Communist-ruled West Bengal, and the one at Ambattur near Chennai in the southern State of Tamil Nadu, are set to re-open in April, if nothing else intervenes in between, local media reports said.
“Maintenance work will start probably by early early-April at both the units,” an official spokesman for the Ruia group, which now controls Dunlop India Ltd. (DIL), has said.
CEAT Kelani Associated Holdings is to invest 300 million rupees (£1.67 million) into the radialisation of its Kelaniya, Sri Lanka plant Managing director Rohan Fernando explained that the new equipment would produce tyres for “light weight vehicles.” Local news sources have reported that the manufacturing upgrade will be funded by local banks.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. says it expects sales in Asia to rise 6 per cent this year compared with an 8.5 per cent increase in 2005, Asia Pacific President Pierre Cohade told Reuters. “We anticipate the industry in Asia to grow 5 per cent this year and we are aiming to gain 6 per cent,” Pierre Cohade said on the sidelines of an American Chamber of Commerce event in Shanghai. Cohade said the forecast was based on a mild slowdown in growth in the China market, one of its major growth drivers.
(Akron/Tire Review) Dana Corp and 40 of its subsidiary companies in the US filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 3 March. The move, long expected by auto industry analysts, does not include Dana’s operations in Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico or Asia.
While under reorganisation, Dana secured $1.45 billion in debtor-in-possession financing to fund its continuing operations. The Toledo, Ohio-based firm employs 19,000 in the US and supplies axles, drive shafts, chassis and steering components, brakes and other components to a wide range of automakers, including troubled GM and Ford.
(Akron/Tire Review) News reports say that Continental AG is looking to purchase portions of struggling Delphi Corp.’s non-U.S. businesses. Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer confirmed the talks at the Geneva Motor Show. “We wouldn’t want any UAW (United Autoworker) factories,” said Wennemer in an interview at the auto show. “There are a lot of other opportunities – Asia, Europe – where we’d be interested in buying. It all depends on what’s available.”
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