ZC Rubber hosted a meeting for dealers and partners in Bangkok, Thailand on 28 Januaruy. The distributor conference was headlined, “More Progress More Achievement”, focusing on improving market share in local tyre markets. Ge Guorong, vice president of ZC Rubber, shared the great achievement in the 2017 that the company’s sales revenue was up for 2017, by about 22 per cent.
Linglong reports that the first truck and bus radials produced at the firm’s Rayong, Thailand production plant rolled off the manufacturing line at 9:28 on 28 May 2015. Construction of the truck tyre production line began in June 2014.
A report published by The Financial Express yesterday claims Apollo Tyres will implement the previously announced production capacity expansion at its factory in Chennai over the coming year. According to Satish Sharma, president of the tyre maker’s Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa business, the planned boost in the plant’s truck and bus radial capacity from 6,000 to 9,000 tyres per day will cost Apollo Rs 15 billion (£155.6 million). Passenger car tyre capacity in Chennai will remain at current levels for the time being.
Commercial production has started at Yokohama Rubber’s tyre plant in India’s Haryana state. The facility, Yokohama’s first in the country, was officially inaugurated in February 2014 and undertook trial production throughout the first half of the year. Plant capacity during this initial phase of commercial production is 2,000 tyres a day. Plant output will focus on the Earth-1 tyre range, which has been specifically designed for the Indian market.
A little more than a year after the inauguration of its new plant in Rosario (Santa Fe province), Marangoni Argentina has further expanded its operations with the installation of a fifth 4-metre press for Unitread and Precauch flat pre-cure retread strips, plus two other presses for the production of Ringtreads. The presses will commence operation shortly.
Korean-based tyre manufacturer Nexen has announced that it has won a contract to supply original equipment tyres (OE) for all new Chrysler 200 cars. According to the company, the new 200 model has been produced at Chrysler’s Starling Heights assembly plant in Michigan, USA since 2011.
Bridgestone has signed a development contract with Invitalia, Italy’s agency for inward investment promotion and enterprise development, for the upgrade of Bridgestone’s Modugno plant in Bari, which employs some 800 workers. A total of €41.3 million is being invested in the project, including a €12.4 million grant from Invitalia. The agreement between the tyre maker and government agency was signed in Rome by Bridgestone Italia CEO Roberto Mauro and Invitalia CEO Domenico Arcuri.
Singapore-based Stamford Tyres has officially opened its new £15 million Commercial Tyre Centre and warehouse at its headquarters in Jurong. The company says this new complex supports its existing facility at the site and will have a staff of 85 people. The all-new centre was constructed at a cost of £12.2 million, while a further £2.8 million has been invested in equipment, including six service bays for trucks offering ‘full life cycle’ facilities along with eight loading and unloading container bays.
Vietnamese tyre maker Casumina reports the official inauguration of its new all-steel truck radial plant on 19 April. The 70,000 square metre factory, located in Tân Uyên (Binh Duong Province), northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, will hold a 350,000 tyre per annum capacity in its initial project phase, with capacity rising to 600,000 units a year by the end of 2015 with phase two. The final project phase, which will take place from late 2015 through to 2017, will lift annual capacity to one million tyres. A total of 1,200 new jobs will be created through the factory project.
Production resumed, albeit at a reduced level, at Continental’s Port Elizabeth factory in South Africa last Friday, ten days after strike action halted all production there. Workers belonging to NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, went on strike on 15 April over a pay dispute, and the limited production now taking place in Port Elizabeth is being performed by non-union members. In a statement, plant spokeswoman Nomfundo Hlela said the factory was not operating at full capacity.
The Allard Chrysler Action Group (ACAG) has announced that Yuasa Battery Sales (UK) Limited has joined the list of companies backing the restoration of Europe’s first dragster, Sydney Allard’s 1961 Allard Chrysler that is owned by the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. Yuasa is well known for its support of motor sport and is a global supplier of original equipment and aftermarket batteries.
On 18 April The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. announced that as of 1 April 2014, its two US industrial product manufacturing and sales subsidiaries are merged into the newly established Yokohama Industries Americas Inc. The merged former subsidiaries are YH America Inc. and SAS Rubber Company. YH America is engaged in the assembly and sale of non-tyre products including: automotive hoses, the production and sale of automotive windshield sealants, and the sale of other industrial products. SAS Rubber is engaged in the production and sale of automotive hoses and other industrial-use rubber products. The newly unified subsidiary’s head office is located in Versailles, Kentucky, with production sites in Kentucky, South Carolina, and Ohio. The two merged subsidies had combined sales of 22.0 billion yen in fiscal 2013 and employ about 1,200 people.
At this year’s CeMAT show in Germany, Continental Commercial Specialty Tires is exhibiting a range of new products from its portfolio, including the V.ply port range, which will enjoy its local premiere at the exhibition. The tyre maker is presenting itself as “Your Premium Partner for Smart Solutions” at the show and is exhibiting at stand L11 in hall 25.
Toyo Tires has announced that a further 12 fitments of its popular and effective Open Country M/T tyre have gained Professional Off Road (POR) accreditation, allowing them to be listed and sold outside of current EU labelling requirements. The tyre is already hugely popular with many off-road professionals, including multiple Dakar and Baja winner, Robby Gordon. The tyre is also being used this year by the Isuzu UK Works Rally Team, on appropriate events.
Michelin has reinvigorated plans to invest more than 410 million zloty (almost 100 million euros) in the modernisation of its Olsztyn agricultural tyre plant in northern Poland, first mooted in August 2013.
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