Tyre and wheel business news from the segment’s most important companies.
The race to acquire Evonik Industries’ carbon black business has narrowed following the withdrawal of Phillips Carbon Black from the final round of the bidding process. Dow Jones Newswires reports the company failed to submit a bid before the final deadline, leaving three or four contenders in the running – Advent International, Triton Partners, Rhone Capital, and possibly Cabot Corp., are said to still be interested.
By mid-March Cooper Tire & Rubber should be the proud 100 per cent owner of Cooper Kenda Tire. Upon finalisation of the US$116.5 million transaction the former 50 per cent Cooper owned joint venture operation will be renamed Cooper Kunshan Tire (contingent to government approval) in recognition of the city in China where it is headquartered. According to Cooper Tire, the transaction should be completed by March 15 through a wholly-owned company subsidiary.
Following a 2010 in which set targets were “clearly surpassed”, Continental AG says it aims to achieve double-digit growth this year. At the company’s Annual Financial Press Conference, held on March 3 in the German city of Frankfurt, CEO Dr. Elmar Degenhart reported a sales growth of almost 30 per cent, to 26 billion euros. This represents record sales for the automotive supplier, a personal best also matched by a record operating result.
MIRA has announced its intention to become a £100million business within the next 10 years. The well-known independent test centre, which is home to test garages belonging to Dunlop, Continental, Giti and Kumho to name but a few, says the business’ growth will see MIRA become the most advanced independent transport technology facility in Europe. And the operation reports that it is willing to commit £300 million to investment in new infrastructure at its Midlands base.
On March 3 Continental AG will hold its annual press conference, at which it will provide detailed information on its performance in 2010, a year in which the automotive supplier says it emerged from the crisis “in impressively good shape.” The company has already reported an increase in annual sales from 20 billion euros in 2009 to “at least” 25.5 billion euros last year, a figure helped by the “positive performance” of the company’s car tyre division.
It’s now 80 years since Shojiro Ishibashi established Bridgestone Tire Co., Ltd. in the Japanese city of Kurume, and to commemorate its oak anniversary Bridgestone Corporation has unveiled a new corporate symbol, brand tagline and announced a refinement of its “The Bridgestone Essence” corporate philosophy. These changes, the tyre maker explains in a press statement, are “part of an integrated strategy to further strengthen Bridgestone brand globally.”
Titan International returned to the black last year after recording a year-end net income of US$0.4 million, boosted by a final quarter that was, as described by company chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor Jr., “better than what we thought it was going to be.” In 2009 the United States based off-road tyre maker experienced a net loss of $24.6 million. Net income in this ‘better than expected’ fourth quarter amounted to $0.7 million; a year earlier Titan International made a loss of $30.7 million in the final quarter. Titan reached its annual net result on the back of sales of $881.6 million, a year-on-year increase of 21.1 per cent, and operational income of $40.9 million. Fourth quarter 2010 sales were $232.7 million, up 58.8 per cent year-on-year, while the quarter’s gross margin was up from a loss of $0.8 in 2009 to $26.0 million last year.
News of Michelin plans to invest in its Dundee facility is circulating in various Scottish newspapers and websites. According to reports, the tyre maker intends to inject a “multi-million pound” investment into the plant in order to facilitate the production of its latest premium eco passenger car tyres. A Michelin study is said to be underway with a best case outcome being the installation of additional production machinery at Dundee, a switch to continuous seven-day operation and the creation of some 140 new jobs. In addition, plans for the Scottish factory include the safeguarding existing employment there.
In the last year or so conflicting reports on Apollo Tyres’ plans to set up a factory in Eastern Europe have circulated; in March 2010 it was said plans for a new plant there had been dropped in favour of a focus on expanding the former Vredestein facility in the Netherlands, while later in the year talk from Apollo management turned again to international investments. Recent news from Chennai, India based newspaper the Economic Times indicates a new factory in Eastern Europe is indeed still on the cards.
Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Property Affairs is offering investors the chance to obtain a 96.98 per cent share in tyre maker JSC Azersin. According to the Azerbaijan Business Center, this package of shares is made up of a standard package offered for investment (85 per cent of shares) plus shares available after labour collective subscription. The share tender is open to both domestic and foreign investors. Bids for shares in the debt-ridden tyre maker are accepted until March 31.
A new chairman of the Board of Directors at Bridgestone Americas has been announced as part of a raft of senior management changes within Bridgestone Corporation. Taking on this role is Koki Takahashi, currently vice chairman and chief financial officer at Bridgestone Americas. He steps into this new position on March 18 and he replaces Masaaki Tsuya, who has served in the role in an interim basis in addition to his regular offices since January 1. Takahashi’s successor in the position of CFO will be announced at a later date, Bridgestone notes.
Various news sources have reported the February 15 signing of a franchise deal between Scotland’s Recyclatech Group and Spanish firm Biotyre. According to The Scotsman newspaper, Biotyre will build a pilot tyre recycling plant in Spain utilising Recyclatech’s bacteria driven devulcanisation technology, and in return from licence fees and royalty sales the Scottish firm will provide Biotyre with technical and scientific support, plus the bacteria used in the process. The half million pound pilot plant is being set up with a view to Biotyre establishing a full-scale commercial operation. Recyclatech itself intends to establish a facility of its own in Scotland, and The Scotsman reports company chairman John Pool as saying the company is “close” to raising the £1 million it needs for this. The Recyclatech plant will have the capacity to produce around 1,000 tonnes of recycled rubber per annum and it will be used to supply samples to companies interested in using the technology.
To fulfil plans to increase tyre making capacity, Yokohama Rubber has signed a contract to lease a 300,000 square metre section of land adjacent to the Yokohama Tire Philippines plant, some sixty kilometres northwest of Manila. The leasing contract for the land at the former US Air Force base was signed between Yokohama and Clark Development Corporation on February 12. The capacity expansion plans were first announced in late January and involve a total investment of 50 billion yen (£371.3 million) in order to increase capacity 143 per cent to 17 million units per annum.
Despite it being Valentine’s day, there was no love lost between Auto Windscreens and the HMRC on 14 February 2011. That’s the day the UK's second largest windscreen repair company went into administration, threatening 1,100 jobs, apparently owing money to the good old Inland Revenue.
During the most recent quarter turnover at Apollo Tyres increased by just 3.2 per cent to Rs 23.68 billion (£319.39 million), and this modest growth in turnover in the three months to December 31, 2010 is in line with growth throughout the first nine months of the current financial year. During the nine months to the end of last year the company achieved net sales of Rs 61.38 billion (£827.89 million), a year-on year growth of 2.7 per cent. The strongest performer in Apollo Tyres’ global operations proved to be the Netherlands based former Vredestein unit, whose turnover grew 11.7 per cent to Rs 6.49 billion (£87.54 million) in the third quarter and 13.1 per cent to Rs 16.11 billion (£217.29 million) in the nine months to December 31, 2010. Apollo Tyres’ net profit for the third quarter decreased 36.8 per cent to Rs 1.2 billion (£16.19 million) while it decreased 35.9 per cent to Rs 2.5 billion (£33.72 million) in the first months of the year.
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