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Borbet Group Acquires Casting Facilities From Michelin-Kronprinz

Effective May 1, 2001, the Borbet group will acquire the casting facilities for light alloy wheels from Michelin-Kronprinz in Solingen (Germany). The production of steel wheels and fabricated aluminium wheels is still owned by the Michelin group. Customers for cast aluminium wheels made by Michelin-Kronprinz – annual capacity around 1.25 million – are solely in the oe market, mainly BMW and Volkswagen, plus Audi, the PSA group and Renault.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Hanford, California Plant Closed By Pirelli

Pirelli Tyre ceased operations at its Hanford, California plant. This follows a six month notice issued to the facility in October 2000 stating that the plant’s cost structure was not competitive with other Pirelli plants’ costs. Production capacity will be transferred from Hanford to plants in Europe and South America.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Face At Simex Europe

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Multiple Causes Of Accidents Cited By Bridgestone/Firestone

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Bears Threaten US Auto Market

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Hayes Lemmerz Invests in Mexico

Hayes Lemmerz International, the world’s largest wheel manufacturer, plans to invest 23 million US dollars with the objective of quadrupling the annual capacity of the Mexican aluminium wheel factory in Chihuahua to 1.2 million units by the year 2001.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Investments Up To 2 Thousand Billion Lire To Create e-Pirelli

New Internet linked initiatives and on-line transfer of all Pirelli company processes were announced today by the company’s board of directors. The e-Pirelli project to has been assigned an investment of 2 billion lire for the period 2000-2002.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Aquatred 3 By Goodyear

At the beginning of the 90s Goodyear had great success – especially in USA – with its aquachannel tyre “Aquatred”. Now the tyre manufacturer launches in North America the dual-aquachannel tyre Aquatred 3 with greater dry traction performance and an 80,000-mile treadlife Warranty. The all-season tyre will be introduced initially in 18 popular T-rated sizes.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Acquires Second Tyre Plant In China

Bridgestone Corporation has acquired control of a Chinese manufacturer who produces radial passenger and commercial tyres from the Republic of Korea’s Kumho Industrial Co. The company has a current production capacity of about 3.5 million tyres a year.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Germany: Record Investments but Reduction in Profits

In the 1999 business year Michelin Reifenwerke KGaA (workforce: 6,747) increased its turnover by 3.2 p.c. or approximately 100 million DM to 3.215 billion DM (1998: 3.115 billion DM). The largest part of total turnover was generated in the German market, where it rose by another 6.3 p.c. compared with the previous year to approximately 60 p.c. of total turnover. As a member of the international manufacturing combine, however, the German factory also supplies the distribution organisations of its European sister. In this Michelin Germany also showed a slight improvement. Total tyre production – measured in tonnes – rose by 2.6 p.c. Sales were up by 4.6 p.c. Michelin sold 8.8 p.c. more light truck and nine per cent more truck tyres in 1999. In winter car tyres in particular the company recorded significant sales growth over the previous year, partly due to the launch of the new products Michelin Alpin and Michelin Pilot Alpin. “Our target for 1999 was the modernisation and enlargement of production capacity to improve our competitiveness”, said Dr. Klaus Neb as spokesman for the management. In the course of last year the company invested a total of about 128 million DM in its five German factories and plans to make another significant investment this year in modernising and increasing capacity, especially in the truck tyre factories. Neb is convinced that these high investments will pay off. “Although economic development will differ from country to country, we expect further growth in Europe for the year 2000.” Read more in NEUE REIFENZEITUNG 5/2000.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

As Expected: Firestone Recalls 4×4 Tyres

The Ford Explorer has come under pressure because of a supposed series of accidents, blamed on allegedly faulty Firestone tyres. Both Ford and Bridgestone Firestone are strenuously denying the allegations. Firestone is the biggest tyre supplier for Ford’s Explorer and Expedition SUVs and the Aiken factory (opened last year) depends heavily on this business. The plant has an annual capacity of ten million tyres, of which nearly half are destined for Ford. After US retailer Sears Roebuck has taken some types of Firestone tyres off its shelves for this reason, in Tokyo, shares in Bridgestone fell by 8.8% at the news. In the US, Bridgestone/Firestone suggested at first that customers visit their B/F dealer for a tyre check but then decided to recall voluntarily ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tyres. The only size involved is the 235/75 R 15. This can count for up to 6.5 million tyres. This information was given in a press conference on 9th August in Washington D.C. The replacement will start in the south states of the USA because the problem often occurred in hot weather. The customer will be given a new tyre free of charge regardless of the condition of the old one. Firestone are also immediately recalling tyres from its 4×4 Wilderness range in Europe. Only one size is affected and relatively small numbers are involved. It is expected that the cost to Firestone could reach US$ 500 million. There are also rumours that Ford – itself coming under growing pressure – intends to change tyre suppliers for its Explorer and Expedition models. Industry observers have expressed surprise at how badly Firestone is managing the public relations aspect of the current crisis.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Fire At Michelin Warehouse

A fire started at a Michelin raw materials warehouse which is dedicated to Michelin’s largest plant at Clermont-Ferrand, where 5,000 people are employed.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Strength in Unity: The MFP 2000 Annual Meeting in Karlsruhe

The fifth annual meeting of the MFP partners, held by invitation of Michelin this year at Karlsruhe, had new performance standards for market progress, “Markt-Förderungs-Programm” (MFP), and current products as the main themes of its agenda. Approximately 500 guests had gathered under the slogan “Gemeinsam am Markt erfolgreich” (Successful in the Market Through Unity). Patrice Kéfalas, as spokesman for Michelin Germany’s sales management and the person responsible for the car and transporter tyre division, combined in his welcoming address the question: What added value can the MFP partner expect from the Michelin group? with a short résumé/look ahead, “We have increased our car and truck tyre production capacity considerably and improved price competitiveness. Now we are vigorously investing in our high-performance tyres. We shall also rejuvenate the Kléber and Riken products and their brand images. And we are doing all this with the aim of being successful with our partners and more successful than the competition.” The strength of the Michelin group with its more than ten per cent worldwide turnover growth last year also safeguards its partners’ future security, he said. Of increasing importance for the Clermont-Ferrand tyre manufacturer is the high-performance tyre market, not only because of the company’s commitment to Formula One. The market in fast tyres is booming, and Michelin is determined to emphasise its strong presence in this market with the new Pilot Primacy and Pilot Exalto. In order to be “successful in the market through unity” Michelin offers quite a number of solutions, which are described in the May issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

New Goodyear Polymer Plant Begins Production

Production has started at a new Goodyear Chemical polymer plant in Beaumont, Texas. The plant cost US$ 144 million and has an annual capacity of 240 million pounds of synthetic rubber and speciality polymers. It is Goodyear Chemical’s fourth facility in Texas.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Renault On The Expansion Trail

Renault is negotiating with Samsung Motors, of South Korea, to buy the latter’s Pusan plant (production capacity 200,000) for Euro 400 million. Renault’s daughter company RVI, made an offer to Daewoo to buy its truck operation (production capacity 20,000) and bus operations (production capacity 6,000 units) for Euro 700 million. Renault has already bought a 37% stake in Nissan for around Euro 5 billion and the new plans will bring the company’s investment in Asia to more than Euro 6 bn.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors