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Hayes Lemmerz in majority ownership of Turkish JV

Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. has acquired an additional 35 per cent of its joint venture, Jantas Jant Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., in Turkey. Hayes Lemmerz now owns 60 per cent of the company, which is part of Hayes Lemmerz’ European Wheel Group. The remaining 40 per cent is held by Inci Holding A.S., Cevdet Inci, and members of his family. The joint venture has been renamed Hayes Lemmerz Jantas Jant Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.. Jantas has the capacity to produce over 1.2 million wheels annually. “Jantas supplies over 175 customers in 50 countries,” said Curtis Clawson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hayes Lemmerz International. “We are confident in the tremendous opportunity Jantas provides to increase our market share in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia.”

14th November 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Stability control programs launched

Continental Teves is launching production of six new electronic stability control programs in North America for model year 2004 vehicles. Continental expects to supply more than 3.6 million stability control units to automakers in North America, Europe and Asia in the 2004 model year, a 7 per cent increase on 2003.

13th November 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin to increase spend in China

Michelin’s Asia-Pacific president Jean-Marc Francois is quoted in the press as saying that the company will invest heavily in the Chinese market, to the tune of several hundred million Dollars over the next ten years. Michelin already has joint ventures in Shenyang and Shanghai, which would benefit from the cash injection, although some may go towards establishing new factories and in marketing the brand.

10th November 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

GM 3Q profit from finance, not cars

GM has announced a 3Q net income of $425 million, compared to a net loss in the same period last year. The downside was that the group made more money from its finance operations than from selling cars, with profits falling in North America and a loss in Europe of $152 million. Things were better in Asia, where profits more than doubled to reach $162 million. GM warned that declining markets in the US and Europe, currency values, increased costs of the new labour contract with unions in the USA and on-going pension costs mean that the group will not achieve its aims for 2003 in the US (to earn at least $1.7bn) nor in Europe (to lose less than $200 million).

16th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Fire at Bridgestone factory to have long-term effects

Early in September, a major fire broke out in Bridgestone’s Tochigi factory in Kuroiso City, 150 km north of Tokyo. The factory is located in a residential area and more than 5,000 local residents were evacuated, spending the night at public facilities as firefighters battled to control the blaze. Some members of the public suffered minor eye and throat irritation, but there were no reports of serious casualties.

At its height, 128 fire engines, over 1,000 firefighters and a firefighting helicopter were involved in tackling the blaze and, 24 hours after the fire began, it was under control, though still not totally extinguished. The Tochigi complex opened in 1971 and covers 510,000 square metres. 850 workers are employed at the plant, all of who were evacuated safely, and products include tyres for passenger cars, trucks and monorails. Around 6,700 tons of tyres a month were produced at the factory, or some 13 per cent of Bridgestone’s Japanese production.

One estimate was that, of 250,000 tyres stored near the plant, 150,000 had been destroyed, as well as extensive damage to the production facility itself. Even before the fire was completely extinguished, industry pundits and investors were debating the possible knock-on effects for the Japanese manufacturer. Mitsubishi was reported as saying that it expected stocks of Bridgestone tyres to be depleted after 16th September, at which date it would seek to source tyres from other manufacturers. On the other hand, Toyota said that it did not expect the fire to disrupt operations and the company would “get tyres from other production sites”.

Bridgestone has eight other tyre plants in Japan and the company said that overtime and weekend work would be necessary at these and other factories in southeast Asia. This may be easier said than done, as recently Bridgestone said it wanted to increase production capacity at plants in Japan (including Tochigi) and elsewhere in the world. These factories were said to be already running at full capacity and Bridgestone had earmarked $773 million to fund this expansion.

9th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Region with potential for the Goodyear Group

Jarro F. Kaplan, a Goodyear employee since 1986, is already in his second year as President Eastern Europe and is responsible for the region that includes Eastern Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East as well as some other countries in Asia. Before that he was General Manager Deutsche Goodyear in Cologne for two years and earlier in his career he held General Manager positions in the UK and Turkey. The region he is now responsible for is – measured by turnover – relatively small, but is becoming increasingly important due to the fact that the group is running highly competitive factories in Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. The income of the workers in those countries is not comparable with that of countries in Western Europe and will not become so for the next decade.

The biggest factory within the production network of the Goodyear Group in the whole of Europe is the Polish factory in Debica. The production is focused on passenger car tyres, mostly S/T rated. The Debica brand dominates, but many Fulda tyres are also produced there. And the Goodyear brand? “Not yet” says Kaplan. Debica has a production capacity of 40,000 tyres a day and there are already concrete plans drawn up to expand this. Plus it should not be forgotten that the Debica factory also produces some agricultural tyres as well as commercial tyres.

South Africa also belongs to Kaplan’s “Empire”. Goodyear has a big factory there and also its own equity with about 150 outlets, plus it is building and expanding a franchise-system.

Starting from South Africa, Goodyear is interested in doing more business in countries like Botswana, Sierra Leone, Kenya and some other countries. The company’s own equity in South Africa is doing a good job delivering tyres in the shortest possible time to customers. But it is absolutely clear that in the long run Goodyear must have its own people in those countries on which the company can rely; it can no longer leave everything in the hands of distributors. Kaplan: “You need to have your own people on the ground.”

Kaplan is travelling much more. For example to Dubai; from here Goodyear is defending its interests in countries like Israel as well as Palestine, in Iraq, Iran and so on. He travels to the north of Africa as well as to Pakistan. Pakistan belongs to his region. He who knows world politics can imagine that it might be impossible to bring India and Pakistan together under the one umbrella of Goodyear Asia.

To summarise: The Eastern Region is active in 95 different countries, with 52 different languages, which forces all managers to be sensitive and to respect the varied cultures.

9th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Hangzhou Zhongce to make tyres for Cooper

Cooper Tire & Rubber has signed an agreement with Hangzhou Zhongce, whereby the Chinese manufacturer will produce 250,000 – 350,000 radial medium truck tyres (RMTs) a year. Moulds and other equipment are being transferred to China from Cooper’s plant at Albany, Georgia, where all of Cooper’s RMTs are currently manufactured. Albany makes 25,000 tyres daily, of which 1,200 are RMTs and the plant employs 1,500 workers. The Chinese-made tyres will be produced under Cooper’s brand names and will be manufactured according to Cooper’s technical specifications.

8th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear invests 30 million dollars in India

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company will invest 30 million US dollars to ease the debt burden of its Indian arm. The funds would be invested through the external commercial borrowing route in Goodyear India to retire high cost debts in favour of low cost borrowings. “India is an important market for Goodyear. We continue to seek ways to introduce tyre technology,” said Antonio Canallini, chairman and managing director, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, India. The joint venture company Goodyear South Asia Tyres Ltd. has recently augmented production capacity by 25 per cent at its Aurangabad facility.

25th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

New tyre plant for Wales

A sports car tyre retreading business has been launched in Wales. Maxsport Competition Tyres is to create up to 25 new jobs at its new tyre retread facility in Rhayader, Powys where it plans to eventually retread more than 50,000 tyres a year, primarily for the motorsport and off-road vehicle markets in Europe and Asia. The company, which has invested more than £1m in a 37,000 sq ft unit at the town’s Brynberth Industrial Estate where it currently employs nine people. Maxsport Competition Tyres is part of the Treble B Group based at Caterham, Surrey, which distributes new and retreaded tyres throughout the UK and has depots in England and South Wales. The group plans to open a new storage and distribution facility in Rhayader in the future.

22nd September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Fire “Will Impact On Earnings”

Although the fire at Bridgestone’s factory in Kuroiso City is now under control, the after-effects are only now becoming apparent. Production has been halted indefinitely until the extent of the damage has been assessed. Spokeswoman Setsuko Ozaki, quoted on the Automotive News website, said “we have no idea when production will resume or how big a blow the fire will have on our earnings, but with an incident this big, there’s bound to be some impact.” Analysts suggest any impact on earnings would be small, but this didn’t prevent Bridgestone shares falling seven per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at one point, against a market that rose two per cent overall. Shares in rival tyre manufacturers Yokohama and Sumitomo Rubber Industries rose by more than five per cent.

10th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone to expand production of truck and bus tyres

Bridgestone Corporation has announced that it will increase production capacity of truck and bus radials at three plants in Japan, and will double the planned capacity at a plant currently under construction in Thailand. The reason is to cater for continuing growth in global demand for truck and bus tyres.

Production at the three Japanese plants at Amagi, Tochigi and Tokyo will increase to 1,300 tyres per day, thanks to an investment of two billion Yen (US$16.86 million), with expansion work expected to be complete by the end of 2004.

In Thailand, subsidiary company Bridgestone Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co. Ltd., has doubled the capacity originally planned for the plant it is building in Chonburi. Construction work began in February this year and the plant will begin production in the second half of 2004, with a daily production of 2,500 tyres. The latest expansion plans will see this increase to 5,000 tyres a day by the end of 2006, and they will cost seven billion Yen ($59 m), bringing the total investment in Chonburi to 24 billion Yen ($202.3 m).

These projects are part of Bridgestone’s on-going, global plans for expanding production capacity in radials for trucks, buses and passenger cars. Car tyre investment will address the shift in demand towards larger sizes and high-performance tyres in the mature markets of North America, Europe and Japan. At the same time, it will cater for growing demand for standard tyres in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The Bridgestone group has earmarked around 90 billion Yen for its capital spending programmes by the end of 2006.

4th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop UK Director

Goodyear Dunlop has appointed Paul Wilde (39) as Director, Consumer Strategic Business Unit, UK. The role gives him responsibility for the consumer business of Goodyear Dunlop, covering car, van and 4×4 tyres. He joins Goodyear Dunlop from Reckitt Benckiser, where his responsibilities included Sales Director for China, General Manager, Philippines and Regional Project Director, East Asia.

1st September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin’s First Half Figures – A Mixed Bag

Michelin has released financial figures for the first half of the year. Sales were down 6 per cent to 7.348 billion Euro, but excluding currency effects, this would be a rise of 4.4 per cent. Operating profit rose one per cent to 578 million Euro and net income was 165 million Euro; below what was expected, but this was almost entirely due to charges of 178 million Euro for restructuring in Spain. Truck tyre sales were better than expected, while car tyre revenues were worse. Michelin’s debt increased by 0.1 billion Euro to 3.9 billion, due largely to the acquisition of the Viborg chain.

1st August 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Q2 Net Loss For Goodyear, But Sales Rise

Goodyear’s second quarter (Q2) figures reveal that the company lost $73.6 million, compared to a net income in Q2 last year of $28.9 m. Sales were up nearly 8 per cent at $3.8 billion (3.5 bn), but volumes were down half a million units to 52.8 million pieces. Chairman and CEO Robert J. Keegan described the results as „disappointing“, but said he was encouraged by the „numerous positive trends„ (notably operations outside North America) and he was „optimistic“ about the turnaround plans.

1st August 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Trelleborg Wheel Systems – First Half Year Results

Figures show that Trelleborg Wheel Systems achieved sales for the first half of the year of 1,470 million Swedish Kroner (SEK), or 160.2 million Euro. Operating profit was up 33 per cent to SEK 84 million (9.15 m Euro), compared with last year’s first half figure of SEK 63 million (6.87 m Euro). During the second quarter, turnover was SEK 713 million (77.7 m Euro) and operating profit was SEK 39 million (4.25 m Euro).

29th July 2003/by Tyrepress Editors