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Bridgestone Steadies The Ship

Analysts are optimistic about the performance of Bridgestone ahead of the release of its 2002 figures at the end of the week. The analysts forecast that Bridgestone’s net profit for the year will more than double to 40.07 billion Yen ($332.5 million), completing a remarkable bounce-back from the Firestone recall debacle. However, it is not all plain sailing, as the same analysts predict a tough time ahead for the corporation over the next few months, due to factors such as a strong Yen, rising raw material prices, weak US demand, and pension fund expenses. Despite these, the 2003 net profit forecast is 74.5 billion Yen ($625 m).

18th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Montupet Starts New Investments

Automotive supplier Montupet SA has completed a 75 million Euro investment at its Chateauroux plant in France. Montupet is one of the biggest suppliers of aluminium motor parts and produces for many car makers, especially the Ford group. The investment has given the plant the ability to produce 2.5 million cast aluminium wheels each year, making it the second largest facility in Europe. The company’s next project will be to invest in its wheel plant near Belfast to increase capacity from 700,000 to about 2.5 million units annually within the next three years. Montupet is the biggest aluminium wheel supplier to the PSA group (Peugeot and Citroen), one of three dominating suppliers at Renault and has recently begun supplying Nissan UK and Seat.

12th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Sixth US Plant For Toyota

Toyota is set to announce plans to build its sixth vehicle assembly plant in North America. The new factory – probably sited at San Antonio, Texas – is expected to cost $800 million and have a production capacity of 150,000 pickup trucks a year. It will begin producing vehicles by 2005.

5th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

ArvinMeritor To Shut Plant In Tennessee

ArvinMeritor is to close its light vehicle systems aperture plant in Tennessee as part of on-going cost-cutting efforts and a response to excess capacity. The work of the factory – the production of window regulators and sunroof systems – will be transferred to other group facilities and 317 jobs will be lost in the closure, which will happen by August.

22nd January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

U.K. Firm Buys Canadian Microwave Plant

Environmental Waste International Inc. has made its first sale of its reverse polymerisation tyre processing plant. It has sold its first plant to an un-named firm in the United Kingdom for an operation to be located there. The company has received a deposit of more than 1 million dollars against the purchase price of 10 million dollars. The plant should be commissioned within 18 months.Environmental Waste International’s system uses microwave energy to separate scrap tyres into carbon black, oil, steel and hydrocarbon gases. The plant can process 3,000 tyres per day. It reduces each 9kg tyre to about 3.5kg of carbon black and 1kg of steel. The plant can use the oil and hydrocarbon gases released to produce enough electricity to run the system. Excess electricity can be sold to the power grid.

16th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian and Matador To Commence Contract Manufacturing

Company News, International News, News

Nokian Tyres plc and Matador AS are signing a contract manufacturing agreement. This transaction will mean that Matador will produce Nokian branded speed categories S, T, and H car summer tyres at its factory in Slovakia. The tyres will be sold in Eastern European markets. The production target for 2003 is 100 thousand Nokian tyres with initial sales taking place during the first quarter of the year. Volume manufacture will increase to 300 thousand tyres by the end of 2005.Through contract manufacturing Nokian will continue to ensure its growth potential in Eastern Europe. Production capacity at the company’s factory in Finland will be freed to produce ultra high performance tyres. The agreement will be valid until the end of 2005 and after that on a one-year basis.

15th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Bekaert Grows In Central Europe

NV Bekaert SA (Kortrijk/Belgium) has announced that it has made an agreement with Penta Investments Limited and Majetkovy Holding a.s. to acquire 100 % of the shares of Drotovna Droty a.s. and Drotovna Kordy a.s. in the Slovak Republic. Both Drotovna Droty a.s. and Drotovna Kordy a.s. were incorporated in 1999 as a result of a restructuring of Drotovna at Hlohovec, 75 km North East of Bratislava. The present owners have been going through a rationalisation process which will give Drotovna Droty a.s. a capacity of approx. 60,000 tonnes of various steel wires for the Central European market and Drotovna Kordy a.s. a capacity of approx. 9,000 tonnes of tire cord and approx. 8,000 tonnes of bead wire. The acquisition of both companies will increase Bekaert’s market share and strengthen its competitive position in the fast growing Central European market. The completion of the purchase is subject to the approval of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic and the full implementation of the rationalisation programme.

10th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company Limited: Double Coin

Along with the dawn of the 21st century, Shanghai has very quickly become the international economic trading capital of China. The city is the showcase of reform, increasingly attracting foreign investment in new business enterprises. Just outside the city centre is the industrial district of Min Hang and this is home to China’s largest tyre producer, Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company Limited.The Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company was incorporated on 4th July 1992. It was restructured from the two oldest tyre manufacturing plants in China, both having a history stretching back over seventy years, the Ta Chung Hua Rubber factory and the Tsen Tai Rubber factory. In the early 1930s these two tyre producers first established the brand names Double Coin and Warrior. In September 1998 a joint venture was agreed with First Tractor Group of China to produce agricultural tyres, expanding the existing capacity by nearly 50 per cent to 900,000 tyres and consolidating its access to the agricultural market. In the same year the company completed a $95 million US dollar expansion programme at the Min Hang factories. Weak domestic demand and the Asian crisis did see a downturn in profits as the decade came to an end, at the same time, selling prices were cut by ten per cent in order to compete with some foreign, and particularly South Korean, tyres. This was a setback, but no more than that. The company has shown itself to be extremely perceptive and very determined.Within the Shanghai Tyre Company today there are three principal tyre producing factories. An all steel radial truck tyre plant manufacturing the Double Coin brand, and a passenger and light truck tyre radial factory producing the Warrior brand; this plant has been a joint venture with Michelin since March 2001. Finally, a bias-ply plant manufacturing passenger, truck, a massive range of agricultural, off-road, industrial and motorcycle tyres in a total of over 350 specifications. The company is the 15th biggest tyre producer in the world, employing over 11,000 people.

9th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Ford in 51.1 Million Dollar Settlement Over Advertising

Ford, last week, reached a settlement with Tennessee Attorney general and 52 other jurisdictions regarding alleged deceptive trade practices relating to the sales of Ford SUVs. The Attorneys alleged that Ford failed to disclose a known safety risk concerning tyre failures with certain Firestone ATX and Wilderness AT tyres which came equipped on some Ford SUVs. The State also alleged that Ford’s advertising misled consumers as to the safe use of Ford SUVs. Other allegations included certain aftermarket tyres sold through Ford’s “Around the Wheel” program were the same tyres as the tyres that came equipped on Ford SUVs when that was not true. Ford denied all such allegations. However, they have agreed to settle nonetheless.

6th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

$35 Million Loan For Apollo Tyres

Apollo Tyres, India’s second-largest tyre manufacturer, has negotiated a $35 million loan from the International Finance Corporation and banks as part of a two-year, $51 million investment plan. $20 million will come from the IFC and the remainder from participating banks. The money will fund the set up of a new truck radial tyre plant in Gujarat and an increase in capacity of Apollo’s two existing plants in Kerala. The radial technology will be supplied under an agreement with Continental AG.

12th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

New Business Plan For Bridgestone Europe

Bridgestone Firestone Europe is to increase its capital by 400 million euros before the year-end, which will be undertaken by Bridgestone Corporation (Japan). Bridgestone will use capital to rebuild its manufacturing resources and to reinforce its sales organisation and financial position. The production capacity for high performance tyres will be strengthened by strategic investment in passenger car tyre plants to facilitate quick changes to future products. This will include the expansion of the Poznan plant, which will increase its capacity up to 23,000 tyres per day from its current capacity of 10,000 tyres. In addition, Bridgestone will increase the truck and bus tyre output from its Bilbao plant from 3,500 to 4,600 units per day by the end of 2005.

4th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Tough Year For Amcast

Joseph Grewe, CEO at Amcast said, “The year to August 2002 had been a tough year, but things were getting better.” North American wheel division continued to perform well with sales up 25 percent, more than doubling their operating income. Automotive sales increased by 30 per cent in total for the final quarter of the year against the same quarter in the previous year. Improved performance of the wheels operations and cost cutting exercises were offset by losses incurred at the Richmond plant affected by launch problems with five major new product launches. An underestimation of demand from the motor manufacturers forced Amcast to increase purchases and develop new unplanned capacity to meet the requested production flow.Despite the general good news the company performed slightly worse in 2002 than in 2001. Largely due to the problems at Richmond and continued poor performance from Speedline. Flow Control also saw a drop in income of 51 percent due to a lower market and one time IT expenses. However, the company reports that five out of eleven production facilities operated profitably in 2002 against only three out of eleven for 2001.

21st October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Superior Industries See Expansion in OE – End of Aftermarket

At Superior Industries 3rd quarter conference call the company announced expected growth of 15 per cent every year for the next three years. This was based on the expected demand from the OE market where the company was seeing growth in supplying the key manufacturers. Shipments to DaimlerChrysler were up to 6 per cent, whilst there was a 15 per cent growth in supplies to non-Ford/GM companies. Market share at Ford/GM continued to increase. However, the aftermarket revenue for the third quarter stood at 903,000 Dollars. Superior accepted that this was an indication that this sector of the market was nearing an end for the company.Current US capacity is around 14.5 million units, plus potentially 2 million from Hungary. In order to meet new demand the company was expanding production capacity at Rogers, Arkansas and at two other plants. Plus there was the possibility of another new plant being developed in the next two years, possibly in China producing wheels exclusively for the export market.

18th October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Keegan Becomes Goodyear CEO

Robert J. Keegan (55), Goodyear’s president and chief operating officer, has also been appointed chief executive officer of the company, effective from January 1st. He takes over from Sam Gibara (63), who will remain as chairman for an unspecified period – in this capacity, he will advise and assist Keegan and other senior managers as they assume responsibility for day-to-day management of the company. Keegan joined Goodyear from Eastman Kodak two years ago, during which time he has, says Gibara, “gained an impressive understanding of the industry and is now fully prepared to take the company forward.” Keegan’s contract included a clause whereby he would receive compensation of several million Dollars if he was not appointed to the position of CEO by October next year.

2nd October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

42-Volt Prototype From Lithium Technology

Lithium Technology Corporation, has announced that together with its German lithium polymer battery company partner, GAIA, the two companies have completed and shipped their first prototype 42-Volt automotive battery to BMW under the auspices of the European Union-sponsored “Astor” program (Assessments and testing of advanced storage systems for propulsion and other electrical systems in passenger cars). The Astor consortium consists of seven European auto companies: VW, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Opel, Fiat, Volvo, and Peugeot. The prototype lithium battery, which is now undergoing testing in Europe, delivers 7-8 kiloWatts of power at ambient temperatures, with a capacity of 27 Amp-hours, a pulse power capability of up to 6 kiloWatts for starting at an operating temperature of -25 degrees C, and an estimated life of 8 years. The battery is designed to meet the 42-Volt battery specifications of the Astor project.

19th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors