commercial vehicle tyres Archives - Page 40 of 45 - Tyrepress

Commercial Vehicle Tyres

Posts

Continental AG Reports 2008 Record Net Loss

Continental AG has reported a record group net loss for 2008, following what executive board chairman Dr Karl-Thomas Neumann called “an unusual year.” The net loss was the result of the company having to write down 1.23 billion euros of “goodwill impairment” due to poor performance in the automotive group’s powertrain division. This was compounded by the effects of high raw material costs and dramatic falls in OE demand during 2008. Consolidated sales came in at 24.239 billion euros, with a group margin of 7.6 per cent – a figure within the company’s “EBIT target corridor.” Nevertheless Continental was able to reduce net indebtedness by roughly 373 million euros, leaving 10.483 billion euros.

Rubber group figures for 2008 faired considerably better with sales of 9.35 billion euros and 10.5 per cent margin. Passenger and Light Truck Tire posted sales of 5.1 billion euros, adjusted pre-tax profits (EBIT) of 644.8 million euros equating to a margin of 13.1 per cent. ContiTech’s numbers totalled 3 billion euros, 327.8 million euros and 11 per cent for sales, adjusted EBIT and margin. Commercial Vehicle Tire (CVT), however, survived on a slim margin of 2.7 per cent (36.3 million euros) despite sales of over a billion. Dr Hans-Joachim Nikolin, executive board member responsible for commercial vehicle tyres, explained that the virtual collapse of OE demand and raw material prices were at the root of the division’s narrow margins. The 290 million euros of increased costs the group had to pay as a result of raw material price increases at the root of CVT’s woes as this division had to face 100 million euros of this figure alone. However, commercial vehicle tyre’s particularly dependence on OE sales is also exposed in the full-year 2008 results.

19th February 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Vee Rubber Catering to Export Markets

In terms of the variety of tyre types produced, Vee Rubber Group is the leading company in Thailand – the company manufacturers a range that covers numerous applications, from go-kart to large commercial vehicle tyres. Most of the company’s production output – which in 2008 amounted to 24 million units – is destined for export, and Vee Rubber designs and manufactures tyres that are suited to their target markets.

Recently Vee Rubber introduced company’s first light truck and 4×4 tyre developed specifically for the North American market – the Taiga H/T. the new tyre was extensively tested in a number of different climates and on many different surfaces, including off road and the result, the company says, is a quiet, comfortable tyre with a long tread life; in the US, the tyre is offered with a 50,000 mile limited tread wear warranty. While the Taiga is not designed as a snow or all terrain tyre, it aims to allow drivers to face everyday driving with confidence, whatever the conditions.

10th February 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Euro-Tyre Supplying Infinity Brand Within Europe

For a quarter of a century Euro-Tyre has operated as a distribution partner within the tyre industry. In 2003 the Netherlands based company took on Infinity brand, and is now the distributor of Infinity tyres in a number of European countries. At present Euro-Tyre is delivering the Infinity brand to Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, Portugal and the Czech Republic, however it says that further markets may be added to this should demand be sufficient.

6th February 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

NTDA Urges Industry to Back Brityrex in September

The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) has expressed its disappointment at the cancellation of April’s CV Show in a statement that also encouraged support for September’s Brityrex exhibition.

Association director Richard Edy said that members would be directly affected by this week’s decision: “The CV Show is always of great interest to many of our members involved in supplying and servicing commercial vehicle tyres. Of course it’s disappointing that a major opportunity to do business has been lost but we appreciate that these unprecedented economic times have hit the vehicle manufacturing sector extremely hard. We look forward to the show returning next year,” he said.

15th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Partners with Emirates for Universal Tyres in UAE

On January 14, Continental AG announced a partnership with Emirates for Universal Tyres LLC for the distribution of passenger and light truck tyres as well as commercial vehicle tyres in the United Arab Emirates. These activities are to be coordinated from the representative office of Continental’s new MENENA business unit, which focuses upon business development in the Middle East and the North Africa region.

14th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental “Welcomes” EU Tyre Label Standardisation

Continental has released a statement welcoming the proposal by the European Commission to introduce an energy efficiency labelling scheme for tyres (see ‘European Commission Proposes Tyre Labelling Scheme’ on Tyrepress.com). The manufacturer approves of the plan to provide motorists with standardised information about tyres’ braking performance, rolling resistance and rolling noise. However, the firm also warned that leading European manufacturers have reservations about the system, namely about “inadequate implementation to the disadvantage of the consumer.”

This concern is a response to a study by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, which in 2001 showed that self-certification measures are often abused due to a lack of inspection mechanisms and sanctions. Over 50 per cent of the electrical appliances checked in 320 German stores were incorrectly labelled or not labelled at all. “That simply may not happen with passenger tyres, considering how important they are for safety,” stressed executive board vice chairman of Continental, Dr Alan Hippe, the man responsible for the Passenger and Light Truck Tyre division.

25th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Cutting Saturday Production in European CV Tyre Factory

Goodyear has announced an end to Saturday production at its Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg factory. This decision, taken as a result of falling demand for commercial vehicle tyres, follows an announcement in early October that the plant’s Sunday shift was being suspended.

Company spokesperson Jean-Paul Bruck has commented that the further reductions in production at the factory have been scheduled due to existing stock levels. Following the October cut in reduction stock levels fell, however they are again stagnating. “We are concerned that they will rise further,” Bruck commented. “We want to produce no tyres [that are] already in inventory.”

29th October 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Mozambique Government Intervenes on Deserted Plant

The government of Mozambique is seeking a way to reactivate the tyre plant near Maputo. The facility is currently paralysed and the state is eager to find new funding to restore the site to its former glories as one of the nation’s showpiece sites for foreign investors. The factory opened in 1979 as the collaborative effort of the ruling parties of Mozambique and General Tire of the United States. However, since the Americans left in 2003, the plant has stood still for five years, with proposals falling flat and potential investment unforthcoming.

Sergio Macamo, the current National Director of Industry told local news sources that the government “received several proposals, but when the time came to make the investment, they did not advance. Now we’ve given a chance to a company that says it wants to revive Mabor. But if the negotiations with this company fail, then we shall launch an international tender by the end of this year.” With the massive international market for tyres very much established, Macamo hopes that the factory can claim its slice of the pie once again soon.

11th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Wins MAN Trucknology Supplier Award

Continental Truck Tyres has won the Trucknology Supplier Award presented by MAN. Marking the award the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge citation noted: Continental AG’s “enormous reliability in terms of meeting deadlines and maintaining quality,” adding: “Furthermore, Continental has often been able to intervene at short notice where supply shortages have arisen, and thus played a major role in ensuring that we had tyres for all our vehicles in 2007.”

MAN grants a Trucknology Supplier Award to up to 10 suppliers every year, evaluating reliability, efficiency, innovation, technical competence, quality, cost, and logistics. Vehicle development and tyre design are coordinated from the outset to ensure that new products can roll out on time.

10th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo Launches ‘Technology Benchmark’ Cross-Ply Tyre

More than 65 per cent of the revenue generated by India’s tyre industry is derived from commercial vehicle tyres, and in this segment Apollo Tyres holds claim to being the clear market leader. The subcontinent is witnessing a gradual shift in usage trends, and while radialisation is beginning to make its presence felt, customers still reliant upon cross-ply technology also seek to benefit from improvements that deliver a better cost-per-kilometre ratio.

2nd September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

A Continent of Contrasts

International News, Product News

Africa is a market that presents tyre manufacturers with both problems and opportunities. Theoretically, the potential may be there for a thriving industry and market, yet unreliable infrastructure, taxation issues and political instability are all features of the African tyre industry landscape that make operations complicated. However, despite such hurdles, the situation in some areas is improving.

In mid-July Dunlop Nigeria announced the planned closure of its factory, claiming tariff reductions on imported goods as a deciding factor. In early 2007 the Nigerian government reduced the tariff on imported truck and bus tyres from 40 per cent to 10 per cent, undermining, in Dunlop’s view, the investments it had made in expanding its radial production programme.

22nd August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Monityre TPMS – Specifically Designed for Commercial Vehicles

With an estimated one third of all commercial vehicle tyres claimed to be incorrectly inflated, the failure to spot problems in truck and trailer tyre pressures can have catastrophic financial effects and damaging consequences for any operator. However, a practical cost effective solution to this problem is now at hand with the launch of Monityre from Safe Europe plc.

Monityre is a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) that, says Safe Europe, eliminates the issues associated with other monitoring systems, allowing operators to accurately and easily monitor tyre pressures within a fleet.

8th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Exclusive Brands Account for 11% UK Car Tyre Market

News, Product News, UK News

GfK data exclusively seen by Tyres & Accessories shows that sales of exclusive brands account for 10.4 per cent of the 2007 UK car tyre replacement market. Based on the results of GfK’s ongoing research, this means 2.62 million of these tyres were sold in the market last year. GfK defines exclusive brands from the retail perspective, meaning tyres that are only available from one clear retail network such as Kwik-Fit’s Arrowspeed brand or ATS’s Riken.

7th August 2008/by Andrew

Joint African Import Tax Causing Harm, Says Sameer

A shared tax threshold for imported products is hampering Sameer Africa’s efforts to expand, the Kenyan company claims. The manufacturer of the Yana brand of tyres says that the common external tariff protocol, agreed upon in 2005 by the East African Community Customs Union, has led to a flood of new and retreaded tyres from markets with lower production costs. This tax, applicable on new commercial vehicle tyres, currently stands at 10 per cent; previously tax rates between 25 and 35 per cent were employed to protect the viability of local manufacturers.

5th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

India’s MMTC Closer to Chinese Tyre Imports

India’s state run MMTC trading company appears to be progressing with its plan to import and market Chinese commercial vehicle tyres in India. According to reports, the company has already identified a US-based tyre manufacturer with a production site in China as the possible source of tyre imports on an ongoing basis. The initial volume order is anticipated to be placed in September or October.

The US based company has not been specifically named, however sources say the firm first entered China in 2006 and recently acquired a production facility there. The company was incorporated in 2005 through a series of mergers and also has production bases in Europe and North America.

29th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors