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.”
Financial analysts have upgraded Continental AG shares to buy on the basis that car manufacturer shutdowns will only be a limited measure. Writing in an investors note dated 25 March, Jefferies analysts explained their rationale:
Family-owned construction machinery manufacturer Liebherr has approved E3/L3 and E4/L4 variants of the Continental EM Master tyre range for its wheel loader portfolio. Since early 2020, Liebherr dealers and end users have been able to order vehicles fitted with EM Master tyres direct from the Liebherr factory.
As of 1 April, Tyremax will take over distribution of Continental truck and bus tyres in the Australian market. In addition to these products being available through the wholesaler’s distribution and delivery network, Tyremax will also provide all other facets of the service in relation to product warehousing, ordering, sales, logistics and technical support.
Tyre maker and automotive technology company Continental has ceased production in some of its plants until further notice. It informed the Frankfurt Stock Exchange of measures put in place to adjust production around the world in response to the spread of the coronavirus and the effect of this upon vehicle production. Continental confirmed that its adjustments include complete production stops in some cases.
Waste management group, CSG, has committed to a further two years with Bandvulc, the retread subsidiary of Continental. The decision takes the tyre management contract between the two companies into its seventh year, at a time when fleet numbers across CSG and sister company J&G have risen to close to 150 vehicles.
Tyre choice is a “decisive factor” determining a vehicle’s dynamic qualities, comments Auto Bild Sportscars in the preamble to its latest comparative test.The performance motoring magazine stresses that this is particularly the case when choosing the right rubber for performance cars. We see this in its 2020 summer tyre test, in which Auto Bild Sportscars looks at ten size 245/35 R19 (front axle) and 265/35 R 19 (rear) tyres that cover a range of prices and performance levels.
Robert (Bob) Lee will take over as the new president of Continental North America. He succeeds Jeff Klei, who will retire after serving more than 30 years in the industry. Lee will be responsible for leading customer, governmental and other external relationships across the region.
Continental is postponing its 2020 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, which was scheduled to take place on 30 April. It reached this decision after the regional government in Lower Saxony, Germany announced a ban on large events in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Postponement was viewed as preferable to relocating the event away from the company’s home town of Hannover.
Devon General Tire Performance Partner, TyreMarks of Tavistock, is supplying volunteer-led Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team with 4×4 and SUV tyres. General Tire and TyreMarks have provided a set of Grabber AT3 all-terrain tyres to the search and rescue team to ensure they can carry out their work safely, responding to emergencies on the wild and remote uplands of Dartmoor. It has also saved the team hundreds of pounds in charitable donations that are used to fund the service.
Deploying the pun ‘best in the field’, Continental has shared results of recent testing conducted by the German Agricultural Society (DLG). In these tests, Continental TractorMaster tyres were compared with “all comparable” products from other established European premium tyre manufacturers as part of the DLG’s ‘Performance Review in Premium Class’ test series. Continental reports that its TractorMaster “won out” over the entire competition. The Continental tyre has now gained DLG certification for a five-year period.
Japanese construction, mining, forestry and military equipment manufacturer Komatsu recently approved several Continental EM Master tyre models as original equipment for the Komatsu Dash 8 wheel loader series. As of January 2020, purchasers of WA270-8, WA320-8, WA380-8, WA470-8, WA-480-8 and WA500-8 models can select E3/L3 or E4/L4 versions of the EM Master in sizes 20.5 R25, 23.5 R25, 26.5 R25 or 29.5 R25.
Cokoon is the brand name of a new bonding system technology that all tyre manufacturers and their suppliers can use as an open source solution. The development partners, tyre maker Continental and reinforcers manufacturer Kordsa, began work on this eco-friendly dip technology in 2017. Continental says it has produced quarter of a million tyres featuring Cokoon since beginning volume production last year.
Following the purchase of Bandvulc in the summer of 2016, then managing director David Smith was promoted into the wider international role of Head of Channel Management Distribution and Region, North Europe for Continental. His 2018 promotion followed a 12-year tenure as UK MD that saw turnover at the UK business more than double. The latest news is that he has returned to the UK, so with all this in mind, Tyres & Accessories recently caught up with David Smith in order to talk about his return as well as both Continental and Bandvulc in the UK.
Continental has launched the new WinterContact TS 870, a winter tyre for small to medium sized cars, at an event in Kittilä, Finland. The tyre is the successor to 2016’s WinterContact TS 860, which has been widely recognised for the quality of its performance in tyre tests. The new tyre, which has a newly designed high-technology tread design and a new iteration of Conti’s Cool Chili compound with optimised crosslink density, features balanced performance improvements over the TS 860, notably five per cent shorter braking on ice and grip on snow, seven per cent increased tread life, and best-in-class noise, represented by one-wave (70dB) on the EU tyre label.
Carlos Bernabé has returned to Continental’s tyre factory in Timișoara, Romania to take on the role of plant manager. The four-decade Continental veteran officially began in this position on 1 February after managing the company’s tyre plant in Alor Setar Malaysia for three years; prior to his sojourn in Malaysia, he worked at the Timișoara plant as production manager.
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Continental AG