Richard J. Sloan (62), executive vice president and md of Tenneco Automotive’s European operations, is to retire in mid June. He will be succeeded by Hari N. Nair (41), senior vice president and md, Tenneco Automotive International Group. Nair’s replacement is Timothy R. Donovan (45), senior vice president and general counsel.
Siemens Automotive has developed a universal tyre pressure monitoring system suitable for use with all OEM tyre makes and models. The system tracks pressure, temperature and acceleration and can identify tyre location on the vehicle on a near real time basis.
The two German wheel manufacturers Intra (one of the biggest oe supplier to Opel) and Dezent (active only in the aftermarket) have announced a merger at the IAA show in Frankfurt next month. They will create an aftermarket company called IDE (brands Intra, Dezent, Exip) and an oe company Intra Automotive. The two companies have almost 300 employees.
The ContiTech Group of the Hanover-based Continental AG closed 2000 as the most successful business year in its history and, for the first time, each of its business units posted a positive operating result. Compared to 1999, the company increased sales by 4.2 per cent to 1.79 billion Euro. In 2000 ContiTech generated 68 percent of sales with automotive manufacturers and 32 percent with industrial customers in the non-automotive sector. The operating result (EBIT) experienced a disproportionate increase of 6.8 per -cent to 139 million Euro.
Hayes Lemmerz is the world’s leading global manufacturer of automotive and commercial highway wheels and one of only a few companies producing wheels from both steel and aluminium. Regarding steel wheels, the company, whose headquarters are in the USA, is the worldwide market leader. Regarding aluminium wheels, Hayes Lemmerz is among the leading manufacturers in Europe. Recent years have seen a move from steel to aluminium wheels in original equipment. Looking purely at price, the steel wheel is absolutely unrivalled, but obviously the two criteria of weight and styling have proved more important to the car manufacturers. Realising that it was not enough that the steel wheel is cheaper, the manufacturers decided to become competitive also in the matter of weight. With its newest development of a steel structure wheel, Hayes Lemmerz has attained this target; this kind of wheel is now fitted in a 16 inch size on the newest Ford Mondeo model. But it must be said that is was not only an achievement of the wheel company but also for the producers of new kinds of steel which gives the wheel more rigidity and stability than before and offers the opportunity to make the wheels thinner and therefore lighter. Regarding styling, Hayes Lemmerz tries to mimic the smart aluminium wheels with new finishes that look like aluminium or chrome or are even coloured. Another opportunity is to create a very well-fitting wheel cap. Being also one of the most sophisticated aluminium wheel manufacturers, Hayes Lemmerz tried to develop lighter alloy wheels too. One competitor (Stahlschmidt & Maiworm) has already made much progress with hollow spokes and this kind of wheel is fitted on the top models of Porsche, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz. The idea of Hayes Lemmerz engineers was not to use the spokes but the rim bead section for cavities: they call the invention “Hollow-Hump Technology”.
A report from automotive intelligence firm Autopolis predicts hard times ahead for the US auto industry, with demand falling by 10 per cent this year and 8.5 percent next. Sales of cars and pickups are forecast to fall until the first half of 2003 at 14.1 million units, down 20 per cent on the 2000 sales figure of 17.6 million units.
The “Sachs Korea Suspension Company Ltd.” joint venture with Kasco will take over the shock absorber and pneumatic spring activities from the leading manufacturer of automotive components with headquarters in the Pusan area and supply the Korean car manufacturers.
A report from automotive consultants autopolis is predicting tough times ahead for most of Asia’s car markets this year, due to falling currencies, lower prices, declining exports and political uncertainty. The average fall is expected to be 7%, with markets outside Japan falling by more than 10%. For Japanese sales, a 4% decline is expected. Sales are expected to fall in most places, excluding China, with South Korean and Indian markets being particularly hard hit.
For 125 years, Continental has been in a position to feel pleased with its identity as a tyre and rubber producer until, under the Physicist von Grünberg, it was steered on to a different course. The plan, which at first sounded sensible, i.e. to use the available human and technical resources to search for and explore technically sophisticated products, in order to present itself increasingly as a partner in development with the automotive industry. That plan suddenly changed when ITT-Teves (Bremsen Teves, from where von Grünberg had come to Continental AG), came up for sale early in the summer of 1998. Teves was acquired for about Euro 1,700 million (1998 sales Euro 1,950 million) which corresponds to 18 times EBIT. The corporation had plunged into debt and now, analysts who had at first applauded the German Corporation’s initiative, points out Continental as an ideal take over candidate, or states that, alternatively, the corporation will collapse under its debts or can be expected to be broken up. The groundwork for this article had already been completed before Continental’s boss Kessel was dismissed. This only goes to show that any speculations about the impact the terrorists’ attacks on New York, for example, may have had on the world of Continental, are totally beside the point; the decline had begun long before that.
Four companies – SKF, Tenneco Automotive, TRW and Valeo – have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop plans to enhance the services offered to their European automotive aftermarket customers. The companies will investigate opportunities to share skills and resources in the fields of training, technical support services and logistics, especially transportation. The four companies will remain independent. Any alliance between the companies resulting from the initial investigation will be subject to the necessary government approvals.
KPMG has been appointed as official receiver for Colway Tyres and Motorway tyres. Production at both firms has ceased and the assets of the firms are to be sold. Total output from the retreading operations amounted to some 1,000,000 tyres in the preceding year. The demise of the retreading operation will indubitably have an effect on the UK retread market, and potentially on the waste tyre problem.
As US automotive sales figures revealed that the US domestic product was facing a massive slump in sales compared to almost universal increases by imported marques, sales of the Ford explorer held up against the national trend with sales rising 3.8% on the 1999 figure, despite the bad publicity onslaught from the Firestone recall.
Jean Pierre Dolait has been appointed as Vice President Sales and Marketing, Aftermarket Tenneco Automotive ( Monroe brand suspension products and Walker exhaust systems). Previously at Valeo, Dolait reports to Tenneco’s General Manager, Aftermarket, Don Miller.
Delphi, the global automotive systems supplier reports a positive year, despite disappointing fourth quarter results due to the sharp drop in fourth quarter vehicle volumes and resultant decline in revenues. Although annual sales are down, net income has increased by $11 million to $1.1 billion. This concludes a good first year for Delphi as an independent,publicly owned company
The tragic terrorist attacks against the United States had an effect on the 59th International Automotive Exhibition (IAA), which took place in Frankfurt from 13th to 23rd of September. For a moment it seemed that, as a reaction to the catastrophes in New York and Washington the whole event would have to be cancelled. However, the authorities decided to continue with the show at a subdued level – which meant that exhibitors cancelled their music and showcases, reducing the programme to pure product presentation level. “It was a quiet show,” is how Prof. Dr. Bernd Gottschalk, President of the German Car Manufacturers Association (VDA) summed it up. The official opening ceremony with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was also cancelled. At noon on Thursday 23rd a five minute silence was held over the whole exhibition area in memory of the victims. The first press day of the IAA was attended by around 10,000 journalists who came to report on the 57 world premieres at the show. The news of the apocalyptic terror attacks spread very quickly amongst press representatives and exhibitors alike. In some areas of the exhibition, for example, hall number 10, which was occupied by the garage equipment suppliers, exhibition activities immediately broke down completely. Groups of visibly shocked people followed the TV transmissions. The shadow of extremist terror had touched even this event.
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