Peru has become a key location for the sale of OTR tyres in recent times, and to better serve this market Bridgestone Corporation opened a newly established sales company there on September 1. Called “Bridgestone Off-The-Road Tire Peru S.A.C.”, the company is to specialise in tyres for mining and construction equipment.
Back in April this year, Michelin utilised the occasion of the Commercial Vehicle Show 2008 to launch its new 255/60 R 19.5 X MaxiTrailer. Michelin are confident that the tyre will win over the marketplace by providing innovative features in terms of both the tyre’s applications – mainly as a result of its relatively compact dimensions – and its safety features. It is specifically designed for low-height trailers as it takes up no more space than a 17.5-inch tyre, following requests from the market to increase the load carrying capacity of the traditional 205/65 R17.5 tyre. The French manufacturer claims that the tyre is ideal for fitment to low loaders being used to transport extra-heavy loads, as well as low-height mega trailers, car transporters and livestock trailers. The new tyre offers a 10 centimetre increase in available space for goods being carried in comparison with regular 19.5-inch tyres.
A company source indicates the new Apollo Tyres greenfield radial facility in preparation on the outskirts of Chennai, India, will enter operation late next year. The Hindu Business Line newspaper was informed that the plant’s first construction phase will commence by the end of October at a cost of 10 billion rupees (£125.7 million). Overall, development of the 135 acre site, which will deliver a daily capacity of 200 tonnes, will cost 22 billion rupees (£276.5 million).
The source further commented that Apollo has become a “high-performance company” and the leading Indian tyre manufacturer with revenues of over US$1.2 billion. “It is built around the core principles of creating stakeholder value through reliability in its products and dependability in its relationships,” he said. The company has a network of over 4,000 dealerships in India, of which over 2,500 are exclusive outlets. In South Africa, it has over 900 dealerships, of which 190 are Dunlop Zones, the source added.
Penny Hydraulics has supplied a new mobile tyre press powered by a diesel generator to Yorkshire-based Ossett Tyre House (Ken Clarke Ltd). According to the company, the diesel generator will allow Ossett Tyre House (Ken Clarke Ltd), approved agent and service provider for BMH Industrial Tyres, to expand its capabilities and visit customers in chemical and process industries where petrol powered equipment is prohibited for safety reasons.
“The new press opens up new opportunities for us because we can now go onto customers’ sites and offer an additional service,” says Stuart Clarke, Director of Ossett Tyre House (Ken Clarke Ltd). “It’s great to be using the first diesel powered press and to get the support from its owners BMH Industrial Tyres.”
Kumho Tire has appointed Mr. J.B. Kim to the position of President Kumho Tire U.S.A. He will be based in the company’s US headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where he will oversee Kumho’s US operations.
Kim joined Kumho Tire in 1986 in the company’s OE division. He worked in a variety of sales capacities for Kumho in the company’s OE and replacement market divisions in the Middle East and Europe. Most recently, Kim was responsible for doubling sales in his capacity with Kumho Tires Latin America.
Thanks to sustained growth in Indonesia’s automotive sector, one of the country’s leading tyre producers expects to see full-year sales to swell by 22 per cent. Gajah Tunggal’s director, And Catharina Widjaja, told Jakarta-based news sources that demand would continue to be high in the second half of the year, following the near-50 per cent growth in car sales in H1. According to GT, the company’s sales will top 8 trillion rupiahs (about 484 million pounds sterling) for the year; a significant increase on 6.6 trillion rupiahs for 2007.
GT’s president director, Christopher Chan Slew Choong, has backed up these figures, stating that the end-year predictions were in line with the company’s goal of achieving annual sales of 1 billion US dollars (c. 554 million pounds sterling) by 2010. Net sales for H1 2008 were 21 per cent up year-on-year to 3.9 trillion rupiahs (c. 233 million pounds sterling), supporting a net profit of 208 billion rupiahs (12.5 million pounds sterling), up 258 per cent from 58 billion.
Plans for a second Michelin factory in Mexico have been shelved due to a decline in North American tyre sales. The manufacturer announced on August 29 its intention to “adjust” production capacity in the region, bringing the proposed facility in Guanajuato state, as announced August 2007, out of step with the company’s current direction. This second factory was to produce tyres primarily for the North American market.
When Brazilian based retreading materials supplier Borrachas Vipal boosted its European market presence in 2005 with the opening of its first distribution centre, the company’s goal was to be one of the largest suppliers of tyre retreading and repair material on the continent, a brand recognised for the quality of its products. Vipal Europe believes this goal has been, three years later, well and truly reached, and confirmation of the company’s ever-stronger position in Europe can be witnessed through the establishment of a third distribution centre in the region.
ExxonMobil Chemical today announced the start-up of a manufacturing facility at its existing site in Pensacola, Fla., that provides new capacity for the production of a new tyre material technology that the company says can improve vehicle fuel efficiency.
“Tyre inner liners made with the new material, Exxcore dynamically vulcanized alloy (DVA), achieve leading-edge air retention with less material. This reduces air loss between fillings and helps conserve energy and resources for future generations,” said Art Sullivan, vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical Butyl Polymers Business.
Specifically, Exxcore DVA enables better fuel economy from significantly improved tyre inflation pressure retention and improved rolling resistance, according to the company. If all vehicle tyres on the road in the U.S. had an IPR of 1.5%, it would represent a significant potential annual fuel savings of over 700 million gallons and a reduction in greenhouse gases of over 6 million tons per year, equivalent to taking over a million cars off the road. Exxcore(TM) DVA can help achieve these savings.
ExxonMobil Chemical’s development partner, Yokohama Rubber Co., plans to begin manufacturing tires with Exxcore DVA inner liners later this year. In addition, Cheng Shin Rubber Company, the manufacturer of the MAXXIS brand, plans to debut a higher-performance, lower-IPR tyre with the new inner liner material in 2009. (Tire Review/Akron)
New sizes have been added to the Nokian TRI 2 range of green area and grassland farming tyres. The block-patterned Nokian TRI 2, which the manufacturer designed to be a reliable partner for modern-day farmers and equipment contractors, offers grip and a high load-bearing capacity. The new low-profile sizes are in the 65 series range and intended for conditions that call for a wide contact area from the tyre. Typical uses include, for example, green area maintenance and transport related to grassland farming.
Following the announced acquisition of the Rumaguma tyre manufacturing facility in Serbia formerly owned by GPX International, the CGS Group has disclosed it intends in time to use the facility as a basis for the further development of the company’s European radial capacities. The Czech Republic based manufacturer will integrate the Rumaguma plant industrial and agricultural tyre plant into its tyre division operated by MITAS a.s. The acquisition is, says CGS, part of the group’s strategy of focusing upon the agricultural and industrial tyres business, and will further support its second position in the European agricultural tyres segment.
The Nokian Forest Rider, designed for CTL (cut-to-length) forestry machines, is said to be the first functional radial tyre for professional forestry use. The size range for the tyre, which Nokian reports has won over users with its driving comfort, durability and supreme traction, is now expanding. The newly available 24.5-inch rim size offers increased mobility and load-bearing capacity to smaller forestry machines. This larger size will also enable smaller machines to bear increasingly substantial loads and efficiently tackle demanding harvesting jobs. This latest Nokian Forest Rider rim size has a width of 650 mm.
Production of new aircraft radial tyres has begun at Bridgestone’s Tokyo Plant in August, reports the company following the completion of the facility’s initial phase. Once the Tokyo Plant is fully completed, which will likely occur by the end of 2011, Bridgestone estimates the factory’s overall production capacity of new aircraft tyres will be approximately 2.5 times the current level.
According to reports, Cooper Tire expects to receive around 2.5 million tyres from its Cooper Chengshan Tire facility in China during 2008. The total phase one capacity of the plant is 6.5 million units, and Cooper is planning an expansion of over two million tyres.
Reiff Reifen operates a state of the art retreading facility in the German town of Reutlingen. This Bandag franchise operation retreads in excess of 40,000 truck tyres each year, all of which are subjected to strict quality control measures. All casings are inspected with a SDS shearography machine that can detect any minor internal separation, and all inspection data is recorded on the company’s mainframe. Tyre building is performed using a Bandag-AZ builder extruder and curing is carried out in four completely new installed Bandag electrical autoclaves. Reiff operates to ISO 9000 standard and contracts TÜV Automotive in Munich to endurance test its retreaded tyres to confirm compliance with ECE 109 regulation requirements.
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