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Sumitomo to Build Radial Plant in Thailand

Sumitomo Rubber Industries has said it will build a radial tyre plant in Thailand, Japan Today has reported. The new factory will be built in an industrial complex 100 kilometres south of Bangkok and will aim to produce 12,000 tyres per day two years after it begins operating in 2006, the report says. The facility will be the company’s third plant in Asia as Sumitomo Rubber already operates factories in Indonesia and China. The company reportedly made the decision to build the new plant in Thailand in response to growing global demand.

8th February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Supports Tsunami Relief

Goodyear Dunlop has teamed up with Southern Vectis providing tyres for ten IVECO 59-12 vehicles that the bus company is pledging to Asia Bus Response, a UK-wide appeal for vehicles by the bus industry.

1st February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

The Condor Will No Longer Fly

Reiff Reifen & Autotechnik (Germany) gave up the production of retreaded passenger car tyres at the end of December 2004, because it was not making a good enough return on its investment. The Condor tyres it produced were a well-known brand and the Reiff manufacturing plant, built only five years ago, was considered the “most modern in the world.” What caused the degeneration of such a promising business model?

27th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Tokai and Mitsubishi Revoke Alliance Agreement

Tokai Carbon and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp have agreed to revoke their agreement to form an Alliance of carbon black businesses. The companies will also withdraw their application for examination by the Fair Trade Commission. The commission had suggested that “the alliance might substantially restrict competition in the Japanese domestic market that is presently short-supplied.”

“We anticipate harsher competition in the carbon black industry in Asia including Japan where aggressive capacity expansions are being made in expectation of rapid growth in the automobile industry, the main consumer of carbon black … We will expand and reinforce our business bases mainly in rapidly growing Thailand and China, as well as accelerate development into high added-value products and new market areas under the basic policy of ‘Powerful R&D,’” the company said in a statement. The stated that it would remain open to the possibility of future alliances.

26th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

China to Formulate Tyre Industry Policy

The Asia Pulse new agency is reporting that an official from the Chinese State Development and Reform Commission recently said the government is soliciting suggestions from relevant parties on a draft tyre industry policy.

The policy, devised by the China Association of Rubber Industry and China International Engineering Consulting Corp, is expected to be made public in the first half of 2005, after it has been revised. The new industrial policy is expected to support enterprises developing advanced technology, encourage the production of radial tyres and slow down the production of bias tyres.

According to the draft policy, China will adopt market access management for tyre industry and work out compulsory technical rules relating to tyre quality, safety, environment protection, energy-conservation and raw material consumption. A memorandum and approval system will be introduced to newly established tyre factories or tyre expansion projects invested by domestic and foreign investors. Relevant requirements will be imposed on the amount of investment, technical ability and products for new tyre projects. The policy will also standardise the tyre import market and ban any forms of waste or used tyre import.

6th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Michael Schumacher Donates 10 Million

German Formula 1 star Michael Schumacher has made a cash donation of $10 million US dollars to the tsunami victims of southern Asia. The allocation of the money in the region will be undertaken by German authorities.

5th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Donates to Tsunami Victims

Continental is contributing $500,000 dollars for the tsunami victims in Asia. According to reports the company is currently working with aid organisations to determine whether a proportion of the donation should take the form of material resources.

The provision of portable 300,000 liter fuel tanks made by ContiTech AG for use in the crisis region is a possibility. Tyres for off-road vehicles or trucks from the Continental production in Malaysia could also be contributed. In addition, the company is also asking its employees throughout the world to contribute to the public fundraising campaigns for the victims.

4th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Hankook Breaks 500 Million Unit Barrier

Hankook Tire Company, South Korea’s largest tyre manufacturer has reportedly broken the half-a-billion unit mark after 63 years of tyre production, the Asia Pulse news service is reporting. “Hankook Tire can produce 1.68 tyres in one second, 481 times more than it could when it was established in 1942,” the company said. “Once the ongoing expansions of production facilities both at home and abroad are completed, we will be able to break the one-billion-unit mark before 2010.” Hankook Tire has two manufacturing plants in South Korea and two plants in China. Hankook is the world’s ninth largest tyre manufacturer.

4th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

More Than Just Products

Today, every company that wants to be successful in fleet business needs a lot more than just good products, nowadays that is just a prerequisite. Those responsible at Bandag Inc in Muscatine, Iowa, are convinced that the right service and the right network is even more important than the products. Bandag claims that it has both, and is trying to further integrate all of its 220 European dealers into a single global retreading network. In order to promote this policy, the company invited 20 of its dealers from around the UK and Ireland to visit its American headquarters.

16th December 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Increases Prices

Bridgestone has announced that it will raise its prices by 5 – 10 per cent on Bridgestone and Firestone branded passenger car tyres and by up to 10 per cent on its construction and mining vehicle products. The increases apply to products exported from Japan to Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the former Soviet republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The company says the price increases are to compensate for the rising costs of steel and oil-based materials. According to Bridgestone, the price increases will vary by product and by market, will be implemented in stages, from 1 January, 2005.

9th December 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Europe’s Evanescent Motorsport Culture

Motorsport isn’t just about speedy overtaking manoeuvres and exciting finishes. Instead a major part of its attraction is owed to the people that live for motorsports and who – if missing – would make the event that bit less interesting. Without doubt one of these people is Pierre Dupasquier. For 30 years the Michelin motorsport director has been generally regarded as the driving force behind the French tyre manufacturer’s involvement. In addition, he is one of the few who, although not a driver himself, is allowed to comment on races on TV. Tyres & Accessories had the opportunity to meet the passionate 67 year old Frenchman and talk about the coming season.

To download this article as a PDF file, click here.

26th November 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

New year New Price Increases

Continental Tire North America has announced that it will raise prices of its commercial and off-the-road tyres, from the 1 January 2005, as a result of rising raw material and other costs.

The increase, which will be between three and six per cent will affect all of its truck and off-road brands including Continental, General and Semperit.

19th November 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Yokohama’s Income Decreases

In its third quarter Yokohama Rubber saw net sales rise by 4.3 per cent to ¥189.7 billion. The company claims that this reflected “solid tyre sales overseas.” However, net income fell by a massive 51.6 per cent, to ¥719 million. The manufacturer claims that this was due to inventory losses and a loss on devaluation of securities investment.

Operating income also declined by 6.3 per cent to ¥4.3 billion, and has been put down to the increase in prices of natural rubber and other raw materials. Yokohama is also citing higher logistics costs stemming from increased export volume and a jump in shipping charges to the decline in income.

12th November 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Tenneco Embarks on Restructuring Programme

Tenneco Automotive has announced that it will cut up to 250 salaried positions, about six per cent of its workforce. The majority of the job losses will come from the middle and senior management levels and will be cut from the company’s worldwide workforce. Tenneco describes the redundancies as part of its “global restructuring” programme, which also includes plans to reduce the number of strategic business units to six.

2nd November 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Yokohama Invest In Philippines

Yokohama Rubber has announced that it will invest some 10 billion yen (£50. 9 million) at its Yokohama Tire Philippines subsidiary in a bid to increase its production capacity to 7 million tyres, by September 2006.

27th October 2004/by Tyrepress Editors