Continental AG plans to invest more than 250 million euro in building a new tyre production facility in Camacari (Bahia/Brazil) and expanding capacity in Malaysia with joint venture partner Sime Darby (car tyres in Alor Setar, truck tyres in Kuala Lumpur).
Bridgestone is to invest 700 million Rand (86 million euro) in upgrading and expanding its Brits tyre manufacturing plant, in North West Province, over a five year period. The investment takes Bridgestone’s total investment in its South African operation to 1.5 billion Rand (185 million euro). The plant, which makes steel belt tyres for passenger, light commercial vehicles and trucks for the local market, has already seen some 210 million Rand (26 million euro) in improvements over the past two years. The improvements will increase capacity by 26 per cent and enable the production of run-flat tyres.
Cordenka has invested in new spinning equipment at its plant in Obernburg, Germany, in response to increased demand for rayon yarn for tyre reinforcement. Annual output will be raised by 1,500 tons to a total of 30,500 tons and the extra capacity will come on stream in the last quarter of this year.
At the Asian Aerospace show in Singapore, Goodyear has announced that it is to supply its Flight Radial aviation tyres for the A320 aircraft in Qantas’s new, low-cost carrier Jetstar Airways. Donald Roulett, global marketing manager for Goodyear aviation tyres, said that the move from bias ply tyres to radials made sense for cost-conscious airlines as radials deliver more landings per tread and provide more load-carrying capacity, helping to reduce costs. In addition, radials weigh up to one fifth less than bias ply tyres and provide lower rolling resistance, and thus better fuel consumption. The Jetstar fleet consists of 23 Airbus A320 aircraft and the agreement lasts for five years.
Back in October, Cooper Tire & Rubber announced that Chinese manufacturer Hangzhou Zhongce would produce 300,000 radial medium truck tyres for the US company. Now Cooper has revealed that Hangzhou Zhongce is also to make one million passenger radials for the US market; these will be in six sizes under the brand names Cooper, Mastercraft, Dean and Starfire. Dick Stephens, president of Cooper’s Tire Group, said that the outsourcing will help Cooper meet growing demand, especially for the Zeon high performance lines. “By outsourcing some of our broadline products, we can devote more production capacity to the more exotic performance tyres,” commented Stephens, adding: “We have increased capacity at all of our US plants and these tyres from Hangzhou will help fill the gap between our capacity and projected demand.” The tyres will be manufactured to Cooper’s specifications and engineers are currently in China conducting audits to ensure the highest quality standards.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company plans to add capacity at its Findlay (Ohio) plant with an equipment investment of 1.8 million US dollars. The capacity will increase by 500,000 tyres annually and add at least 30 additional jobs in the Findlay production facility. Bill Woeste, vice president manufacturing, said, “We expect this equipment to be in place and at full production levels by late summer,” he concluded. In January, Cooper announced investments in its other three U.S. tyre plants; with Findlay added, the total investment is nearly 34 million US dollars and an added capacity of almost 3 million units annually.
Saba Tire Cord Manufacturing Complex of Iran has established a nylon tyre cord production facility about 15 km north east of Zanjan, Iran. The operation, which started up in April last year, is the largest such facility in the Middle East region, the company claims. Saba’s 600-employee facility has an annual production capacity of 15,000 tonnes of different tyre cord fabrics. Saba is owned by Rubber Industries Investment & Development Co., an Iranian holding company.
Yokohama Rubber Ltd. plans to invest 5.8 billion yen on a new truck and bus radial tyre factory in Thailand according to Hisakuni Yamashita, president of Yokohama Tyre Manufacturing (Thailand). The Thai unit was set up in January and will commence production in April 2005, with initial annual capacity of 315,000 tires and a final target of 600,000 tires in the second phase. Japan’s Yokohama Rubber owns 95 per cent of the Thai unit while the remaining 5 per cent is owned by T Siam Commercial Ltd., the Yokohama tyre distributor in Thailand.
Honeywell has announced that it will double its dimensionally stable polyester production in Kaiping, China, to meet growing demand for its products and services in the Asian marketplace. The added capacity will produce the latest generations of Honeywell’s DSP® fibres for tyre reinforcement and other end uses. “This is another example of our commitment to the global tyre industry and our customers worldwide,” said Greg Rogowski, General Manager, Performance Fibers. “As the only polyester fibre supplier with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe and North America, we continue to make investments in technology to meet the needs of our customers, wherever they are located.” The plant expansion is expected to be complete by late 2004.
Bekaert has officially inaugurated its first steel cord plant Bekaert Industries Pvt Ltd in Pune (India).
Michelin signed a three-year agreement to supply Volvo Group with truck tires as original equipment on Renault and Volvo trucks assembled in Europe. The agreement confirms Michelin’s position as a major supplier of tires to the Volvo Group in Europe. The deal comes at a time when global radial truck tire production capacity is saturated, even as demand is expected to experience growth in the future. It is in line with Michelin’s commitment to balancing its operations in the original and replacement equipment markets in order to deliver optimal service quality across all markets, while maintaining its profitability.
Cooper Tire and Rubber has announced increased capital equipment investments in three of their four US tyre manufacturing facilities. This increase provides additional production capacity of more than 2.4 million units. The 32.1 million US dollar investment will include the purchase of new tyre building machinery and presses and add 116 additional manufacturing employees.
Nokian Tyres will start construction of a 120 million US Dollar tyre plant worth in the Leningrad Oblast in 2004. The plant, due to be completed in 2005, will be built in three stages and eventually reach capacity of 6 million tyres per year. Nokian holds about 14 per cent of the imported tyre market in Russia.
Kumho Tire Co. Inc. is building a second tyre plant in China, next to an existing plant in Nanjing, that will double annual production capacity in China to 10 million units by 2008. The 130 million US dollar project will provide Nanjing Kumho Tire Co. Ltd. with additional capacity aiming to increase its share of the passenger radial market in China to 25 per cent, according to Kumho. In conjunction with the expansion project, Nanjing Kumho is setting up distribution hubs in northern China. The project is separate from a new plant Kumho opened recently in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, using proprietary automated technology.
Kumho Tires Ltd. has completed construction of a tyre plant equipped with an automated production unit in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. The company is the first Korean tyre maker to have the automated system that so far is used by only the five top tyre companies around the world – Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Continental and Pirelli. Kumho said the automated production unit combines nine stages of tyre production, cutting the length of the production line from 1.2 kilometers to 800 metres. About 100 billion won (84 million US dollars) was spent on the construction over the past two years and four months. The new factory can produce 6,000 tyres per day, with annual production capacity expected at 2 million. The company’s total annual production now is 36.6 million tyres.
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