Raof Daud, Managing Director of Simex Europe, is leaving the company after almost nine years in the post. He is going to Lec Refrigeration (like Simex, a member of the Sime Darby group) in a senior sales capacity. Taking over at Simex Europe as General Manager is A. K. Lee, who was previously Export Manager, based in Malaysia.
Bridgestone/Firestone has issued the results of its four month investigation into the accidents in the USA involving certain Firestone tyres. A number of causes were identified, including unspecified manufacturing problems at Decatur, tyre design in the shoulder area, driver abuse (travelling too fast and at the wrong pressure) and the weight of the Ford Explorer vehicle, particularly an alleged uneven weight distribution on the back axle. Ford denies that the margin for error between the load capacity of the tyres and the weight of a fully-laden Explorer is too slim.
Autopolis, the Bear-ish auto industry strategist is likely to downgrade forecasts for the US and North American automotive markets. Despite high sales, production is down by 20% and stocks 40% above normal. This follows an earlier warning of a forecast 11% drop in world-wide (in Western Europe and Asia too) demand, and alerts issued by Autopolis regarding over capacity, and the need to cut costs and improve marketing.
A report from Frost & Sullivan predicts that diesel engines in cars will become ever-smaller. By the end of 2002, these ‘mini-diesels’ will make up 35 per cent of the western European car market, with engine capacities starting at 600cc.
Russia’s leading tyre manufacturer, Nizhnekamskshina, is to boost capacity by 2 million steel belted radial car tyres by 2002. There are also plans to create new truck tyre lines by 2003, to produce 17.5, 21.5 and 22.5 truck tyres for the domestic market. The $60 million investment is being supplied by a major Russian oil company and will see car tyre production rise to 7 million units, though overall output will remain at around 12 million.
According to research from Deloitte & Touche, businesses are not making the best use of Internet trading facilities. Most, they say, concentrate only on the supply chain element of their e-trading. According to the Deloitte & Touche report a full integration of the demand chain and supply chain, from basic supplier to consumer, offers greater shareholder value, increasing profitability by up to 70 percent.
Japanese car producer Nissan is investing 930 million US-Dollars in a new plant in Canton (Mississippi). Construction began at the beginning of April. The new plant will have a production capacity of 250,000 cars per annum and employ 4,000 people.
DaimlerChrysler has announced that it is to cut 26,000 jobs globally over the next three years, which equates to 20 per cent of the group’s workforce. Production will be stopped or curtailed at 13 factories, cutting capacity by 15 per cent. DaimlerChrysler has also told suppliers to reduce prices by 5 per cent.
As announced in a press conference in Tokyo, car manufacturer Suzuki will supply 3,000 so called minicars a month to Nissan from 2002 onwards. With this agreement Nissan will enter the small car segment – with a maximum capacity of 660 cc – which already has a market share of 30 percent in Japan.
Almost all car manufacturers are offering new SUV models. While sales figures for December last year fell dramatically for the “big three”, the European, Japanese and Korean producers were very successful. Analysts are worried because they expect a price war in the till-now-profitable SUV segment, caused by growing over-capacity. Products from Chrysler especially, but also from GM to some extent, are under growing pressure. So far, the big three have cut back production in order to avoid a costly incentive programme. During press conferences in Detroit, high ranking managers were unable to dispel these concerns and thus analysts do not recommend GM and DaimlerChrysler shares as a buy; in fact, quite the contrary.
The Brock-Group is known across Germany as an alloy wheel marketing company. Successfully marketing an assortment covering everything from commonplace to extravagant wheels, the group has gained the reputation of a quality supplier. Although it wasn’t carefully planned for future business, it cannot be purely accident that the group has owned a wheel factory in Bosnia for two years now. Meanwhile, nearly 100 machines are working in the factory 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year, with an annual production capacity of some 500,000 wheels. However, this figure alone does not say very much; equipment and machinery, as far as it has been replaced, is state-of-the-art, and it is obvious that within only a few months this factory will be run exclusively by new and modern machinery. E.T.R.T.O, KBA, TÜV, SF 1 JWL and Jaso standards are fulfilled in order to guarantee quality. The qualification procedure of the factory will take place this August. In the interview with NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, Claudia and Elisabeth Brock point out that in the future the Brock-Group will go on putting emphasis on the upper level, i.e. the high-tech level. The assortment consists of very nice and very costly wheels, which are in demand all over Europe and the marketing of which is very interesting for manufacturers and for both wholesalers and retailers. High class segments consisting of aesthetically designed wheels and many special sizes form the mainstay of the Brock-Group, well-known by the names Brock Car Fashion and Rad Center Derkum.
On January 1, 2001, Degussa-Hüls transferred its DMT (dimethyl terephthalate) business to a separate legal entity. The new company, Oxxynova, will initially operate as a marketing operation. Production of DMT, including two production facilities, employing 250, will be transferred to Oxxynova GmbH & Co KG (Marl, Germany) on April 1. DMT is a base product used in the manufacture of polyester. DMT based polyester uses include, for example, the reinforcement of car tyres. Oxxynova is the European market leader with total production capacity of 480,000 tons.
Polish tyre manufacturer Stomil-Olsztyn, a member of the Michelin-group, is offering a new radial tyre for trailers, called “AM-17 Transport” , size 400/70 R20 150D, through its German distributor Bohnenkamp (Osnabrück). Its higher loading capacity as well as the significantly reduced rolling resistance compared with its diagonal version shall make this new tyre to an economic alternative for the farmer.
There are a lot of patents, some first registered in the 60s, concerning retreading using a ring system. Most of the patents belong to Marangoni, the majority shareholder of Ellerbrock. But the new tyre manufacturers were also thinking about the idea of a ring. There were also developments by Goodyear very similar to the Marangoni system, so that it came to a legal settlement. But this was long ago and ancient history – now Goodyear offers its own ring called “Uni-Circle”. Until now only one plant has existed in Europe where these rings are produced: in the Marangoni factory in Frosinone (Italy) so you don’t need to be a detective to understand that the Goodyear source of Uni-Circle is the Marangoni plant. Now Ellerbrock has also begun production of the tread in form of a ring, also called Ringtread system. Ellerbrock will be responsible for the markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. Other countries may be added later, because Ellerbrock will produce the modern tread patterns popular in central Europe. Capacity of the new facility will be 300 rings per day. One benefit of the rings in comparison with traditional flat tread patterns for retreading is the higher flexibility in production: charges of twenty rings are no problems in the new plant. But there are also benefits for the retreaders: they can save material, time, and because the process is totally automated, mistakes in production caused by human error – which might lead to splice separations – are nearly impossible. And the ring looks exactly like a new tyre. The target of Ellerbrock with the Ringtread system is not to change from traditional truck tyre retreading but to find new customers.
Michelin has introduced the MachXbib – a tubeless radial designed for high-powered tractors. It combines high load carrying capacity with low soil compaction. On the road, it permits heavy load transportation at sp eeds up to 50 km/hr. It is available in two sizes: 900/50 R42 TL and 710/55 R30 TL.
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