Hannover-based Continental AG is a leading automotive supplier and – according to the company – is “the choice of leading car manufacturers, offering award-winning tyres that deliver responsive braking in all weather conditions.”
Autocar magazine has performed its 2010 rear wheel drive tyre test, and Continental has good reason to spread the word about the test’s outcome. Continental Tyre Group UK reports that its ContiSportContact 3 has “proved its rear wheel drive capabilities” by taking top spot in the test, which was conducted using a Mercedes C280.
Baxters, the famous soup maker, has choosen Continental’s SC 20 solid tyre on its fork lift truck fleet at its production and distribution facility in Fochabers. Fitting the SC 20 has reportedly improved safety, cut vehicle downtime and the whole life costs of tyres at the business. According to the company, the new tyres return three times the tyre life expectancy of the firm’s previous brand.
Baxters’ Fochabers production and distribution facility runs 25 Hyster trucks, a mixture of both gas and electric from 1.75 up to 3 tonnes. Trucks are maintained onsite on a three month service cycle by an engineer from Barloworld Handling Ltd.
John Pease, stores and warehouse manager is responsible for the forklifts at the Fochabers plant: “We had been using the standard Original Equipment solid tyres that came fitted to the trucks but they were performing very poorly. Vehicle downtime was excessive which made the operation very costly. Our plant is very demanding, running round the clock but the tyres just weren’t returning the performance that we expect. Tyres were wearing quickly and unevenly and were occasionally chunking leaving trucks unstable and creating a safety issue for both products and trucks.”
The success of the Grabber brand has been highlighted in Continental Tire the Americas’ decision to apply this name to products in General Tire’s truck range. Yet as the name suggests, the original Grabber was a dedicated off-road tyre with an emphasis on traction – and in August 2010 a new street version that combines off and on-road use was released in the US. Parent company Continental describes the latest Grabber as an “extreme traction tyre for the street and off-road,” a product that brings General Tire’s race technology to everyday use.
A relaunch of the General truck tyre range in North America is intended to give it “a stronger focus and an identity that will resonate with commercial truck drivers across the Americas.” Upon announcing the changes to the Continental Tire the Americas brand, truck tyre brand manager Libor Heger commented that the General commercial vehicle tyre portfolio would be expanded to meet the needs of customers throughout the entire continent.
According to ‘confidential sources’, Continental AG is planning another high-yield bond placement for September. Reuters Deutschland reports the bond will be to the value of less than a billion euros, a scale comparable with the five-year bond the indebted company released in July. Company CFO Wolfgang Schäfer has previously stated that Continental plans to place bonds to a total volume of up to four billion euros.
What Car?’s tyre test team make a good point highlighting the differences between some premium and budget products in their recent tyre test. But it appears they went a step too far when they entitled the feature “why budget tyres could kill” lumping the three cheaper products (Arrowspeed, Ovation and Sunew) together in the their final conclusion. It might sound a touch pedantic, but the addition of the word “some” in the headline may have been fairer as this would have avoided generalising about the overall quality of tyres.
It didn’t take long after Tyres & Accessories reported on the tests on our daily e-Newsletter for the manufacturers involved to take up their right to reply. The Korean manufacturer behind Kwik-Fit’s popular Arrowspeed tyre brand arguably has the best case for disputing being tarred with the saw low-budget brush as the Ovation and the Sunew tyres.
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Analysts at Morgan Stanley have upgraded their target price for Continental stock following second quarter results that were 10 per cent higher than consensus, while reducing net debt by 220 million euros to 8 billion. “We feel comfortable bringing our ’10 EPS to 4.92 euros and increasing ’11 and ’12 EPS by 25-35 per cent…We believe Conti shares will benefit as the debt refinancing continues – but we cannot justify an overweight rating with only 18 per cent upside potential to our price target. Moreover, numerous unknown factors, including risks related to Schaeffler’s continued 75.1 per cent dominance over the company, keep us on the sidelines,” the bank’s analysts wrote in an investor’s note published on 30 July.
What Car? has named and shamed budget brands in a test warning that tyres like these “could kill.” In the test published online on 4 August 2010 What Car? measured the performance of the Arrowspeed CP661, Continental Premium Contact 2, Goodyear Optigrip, Michelin Pilot Sport 3, Ovation VI-182 and Sunew YS112 in dry braking, wet braking, lateral grip and noise tests. The Michelin Pilot Sport 3 came out top, with particularly strong results in wet and dry braking. However, there were some shocking outcomes in the budget sector when it came to braking and noise.
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Sometimes you just have to do something to prove it can indeed be done. Olympic medallist Giorgio Di Centa may have had this thought in mind as he steered his tractor, a Same Silver3 110, up to a height of 3,175 metres at the Pirovano ski hut in Italy’s Stelvio Pass. Di Centa achieved this unusual goal using CGS manufactured Continental AC70 T agricultural tyres fitted with König snow chains. Upon his arrival, he could warm himself with the thought that he had driven a tractor higher than anyone else in Europe, a feat attested to by the Italian Timekeepers Association (Federazione Italiana Cronometristi). On his way to this dizzying height, Di Centa encountered terrain that varied between paved road, stone and ice.
The latest generation Porsche Cayenne went on sale at the end of May, and Yokohama Rubber reports its Advan Sport has been approved by Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG as an original equipment tyre on the luxury 4×4. The Advan Sport will be supplied in sizes 275/45R20 110Y XL and 295/35R21 107Y XL. Versions of the Advan Sport destined for the Cayenne were jointly developed by Porsche and Yokohama Rubber and bear "N-0" and "N-1" markings on the sidewalls indicating Porsche's approval. This latest homologation joins OE approvals for the Porsche 911 Carrera 4, Audi S8 and Bentley Continental as well as various models from Mercedes-AMG.
In the words of Continental AG’s Executive Board chairman Dr. Elmar Degenhart, the German tyre and automotive systems manufacturer “is well on its way to emerging from the crisis stronger than before.” In particular, the company’s EBIT has developed positively and the EBIT margin exceeded pre-crisis levels during the first half of 2010. “This is also however obvious from our balance sheet, which we have improved substantially since the beginning of the year with the capital increase and the equally successful placement of an initial bond, as announced,” Degenhart added. “With this basis, we are tackling the upcoming tasks brimming with confidence.”
The UK distributor for Yokohama tyres, Yokohama HPT Ltd, has announced it will supply the market with a selection of the company’s W.drive winter tyres; this is the first time Yokohama winter tyres have been available here. Adopted by manufacturers such as Audi, Bentley, Lotus and Mercedes AMG as winter options and recommended by motoring organisations around Europe, the W.drive range is designed to provide grip and safety on snow and ice and allow drivers to maintain control in all conditions.
Continental is expanding its football sponsorship with a deal involving one of the world’s best-known teams. Together with majority shareholder the Schaeffler Group, the German tyre and automotive components manufacturer has become sponsoring partner of FC Bayern Munich. Recently the companies and the club signed an agreement that runs until 2015.
According to Nairobi based news portal The East African, the nation of Tanzania is “struggling” to end the multi-billion dollar General Tyres East Africa (GTEA) partnership brokered with Continental AG in the mid-1990s. The East African states that Continental, 38 per cent shareholder in the venture, has been “feuding with the state” since 2006. The GTEA facility in northern Tanzania has been closed since 2007, with 400 workers locked out.
The Schaeffler Group – the German company best known to us for its dealings with Continental – has given news of its plans to carry out further expansion in Asia, an area in which it says localisation is opening up additional opportunities for growth. Investments totalling 300 million euros will be made in this region, including the construction of two factories in China to supplement the existing manufacturing facilities there which are operating at full capacity, and one factory in India. Construction of the new factories is to be completed by 2012. Research and development capacities in Japan and India will be expanded as part of the investment, and production capacity at the company’s eleven existing manufacturing locations (in China, India, Korea and Vietnam) will also be increased.
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