Effective 22 July, Bridgestone Americas will have a new head of communications. Paul Oakley takes on the role of vice-president, communications, and in this capacity will lead Bridgestone’s communications strategy across the Americas.
A little over two months ago, Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) announced its plan to build a new commercial tyre plant in the US. On 11 July it announced that the first phase of the facility in West Point, Mississippi will be designed by Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers, PC of Atlanta, Georgia. The project taken on by Kajima Associates calls for the design of a 931,000 square foot (86,500 square metre) factory that includes production, warehousing and operations facilities.
Leading Indian retreading equipment supplier Elgi is targeting new tyre manufacturers with the launch of a monorail tyre handling system, developed by its Brazilian subsidiary Armonas. India is home to 39 tyre manufacturers and 60 individual production plants and Elgi hopes to take advantage of producers moving into, or developing their retreading capacity.
They’re still legal in the UK, but many other countries are choosing to distance themselves from part-worn tyres. Ghana is the latest to announce it will enforce a ban on these products. The country’s governmental road safety authority, the National Road Safety Commission, will begin doing so in September 2013. Prior to this date the NRSC will run a public education campaign to prepare motorists.
Aebi Schmidt has selected Hankook’s Vantra LT tyre for its Swingo 200 street cleaning machines. At over four tonnes, the Swingo 200 is tough machine that can expect a long and arduous working life. This specialist machine also boasts a large hopper capacity, resulting in a 50 per cent bigger payload than other street sweepers.
With a full range of tyres designed for each part of the waste/recycling market Kal Tire hopes to communicate how it has become the UK’s number one at this year’s RWM show.
In addition to an available supply of new tyres in a comprehensive range of sizes and tread patterns, the company offers Kal ‘Fil’ tyres as a cost effective long-term solution to tyre related machine downtime in hazardous environments. According to the company, Fil tyres are guaranteed 100 per cent and can be retreaded up to three times; (depending on casing quality) giving further cost savings and environmental benefits on replacement tyres. The Kal Tire
Fil service is available at depots throughout the UK.
Pirelli has detailed plans to put the second half of its US$400 million investment in the company’s Silao, Mexico factory towards so-called “green performance” tyre production. Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto met with a delegation of Pirelli’s top management who illustrated the progress of the company’s investment in the country at the announcement.
Toyo Tire & Rubber appears likely to increase production in the US. Company president Akira Nobuki has been quoted by Bloomberg as saying that US manufacturing is “making a comeback” and that Toyo can “can picture the scenario of jobs coming back” and expansion occurring in this market.
Rajiv Poddar, executive director of BKT (Balkrishna Tyres), says India’s huge natural mineral deposits will provide future opportunities for the tyre industry in his guest of honour address at Tyrexpo India 2013. The show runs at the Chennai Trade Centre from 9-11 July, and joining Poddar at the opening of its second staging were the chairman of the Chemical and Allied Export Promotion Council of India’s tyre panel, P Prasanth; P.Vijayaraghavan of exhibitor TVS Tyres; and Nirmal Singhvi of the Tamil Nadu Tyre Dealers Association.
Within an industry that in past years has increasingly and openly distanced itself from manual handwork and developed into a commercial business with single-use consumer products, skills such as tyre repair have played an ever smaller role. Yet this trend, as many within the industry are discovering – particularly those who consider themselves specialist tyre dealers – is simply wrong. A company that has vigorously fought against this trend and attempted to (re)establish tyre repair as an accepted and, most importantly, high-end craft is Rema Tip Top. The globally active German workshop outfitter and parts supplier views itself as a world leader in the field of tyre repair and in its home market alone is supported by a network of more than 100 ‘MTR partners’. These are audited and certified dealers who place great value on performing professional tyre repairs according to set provisions, and by doing so pursue quite interesting business aims – just as Rema Tip Top does.
Marangoni Retreading Systems has inauguration a new manufacturing plant in Argentina, in the city of Alvear, Santa Fe. This new plant brings the total number of sites operating around the world and featuring Ringtread lines to five, all part of the Marangoni Group division specialising in pre-cure retreading.
Uniwheels, a long time supplier of alloy wheels to Honda Access, has been given a “Honda Access Europe Award” for its excellent overall performance in 2012. This is the second consecutive Honda Access award that the Uniwheels Production (Poland) Sp z.o.o. operation has received.
Kenda Rubber Industrial Co has reported its intention to increase its global production capacity for passenger car tyres by 50 per cent in 2013. The company will manufacture 38,000 units per day by the end of 2013 in order to meet rising market demand, with the increases coming in both its home market of Taiwan and in two Chinese factories. These include the Tianjin factory, which produced its first prototype tyre in May.
Continental has confirmed it will invest around €100 million increasing production capacity at its Puchov truck and bus tyre factory in Slovakia, boosting capacity from some 2.6 million tyres a year to over three million tyres. Puchov, Continental’s largest truck and bus tyre production facility within the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, will also receive “extensive upgrades” to machinery and infrastructure in order to achieve maximum production efficiency.
With lithium-ion batteries set to maintain market dominance during the remainder of the decade, the uptake of electric vehicles is projected to drive battery revenues to US$61billion by 2020. And electric vehicle batteries to account for 73 per cent of advanced battery market by end of decade.
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