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.”
Continental reports its latest Eurobond has a nominal amount of €750 million; it is expected to be issued on 16 July and has a term of five years, with a 3.0 per cent annual interest rate. Interest will be payable semi-annually in arrears. The issue price is 98.95 per cent. The bond will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Regulated Market and BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, ING and UniCredit will as joint-bookrunners for the transaction.
Pirelli has won the 2013 Volkswagen Group Award for its global partnership, product quality, competitiveness, project management and flexibility. According to the company, VW’s “global champion” Pirelli has produced more than 200 homologations that equip some of the Wolfsburg carmaker’s most prestigious models. Another 250 homologations are currently under development, many of which will go into production within the next few years.
Continental has released details of its upcoming Eurobond offer. It says it will issue a bond with a volume of at least €500 million and a term to maturity of five years, and intends to use the issue proceeds thereof for the partial refinancing of its bond issued in September 2010. The offer is open to investors residing outside the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. The issue volume and bond conditions are expected to be determined in the next few days.
Continental says it “recently received a whole raft of approvals” from Audi. The ContiSportContact 5 summer tyre has been approved for both the Audi A3 and A8, while in future the A6, A6 Allroad, A7 and RS 6 Quattro will be equipped with the sportier ContiSportContact 5 P. In all, five tyre sizes for 19 to 21-inch rims have been homologated. The Continental tyres fitted as original equipment on most of the above Audi models will bear the letters ‘AO’ (Audi Original parts) on the sidewall, and in future these tyres will also be available to order from Audi dealerships and specialist tyre dealers. Tyres for the Audi RS will bear the sidewall marking ‘R01’.
Yokohama Tire Corporation has hired Andrew Zeisser as its new director of OE sales. In this role, Zeisser will be responsible for the company’s original equipment business in North America and will lead Yokohama Tire Corporation’s OE sales, engineering and quality functions. He will be based at the company’s Detroit, Michigan office.
Continental is continuing its ongoing plans to more fully “connect” cars. As far as the automotive supplier is concerned, it is not just about smartphones or computers, but rather, but rather connectivity is becoming an increasingly influential part of any sales proposition. For Conti, the connected vehicle will be a key subject of future developments. “Today, more and more new vehicle functions are already based on connectivity. To create innovative functions, we are linking vehicle components and systems ever more closely with one another and, at the same time, increasingly connecting the vehicle to the outside world,” explains Ralf Lenninger, head of the Strategy and Development department of Continental’s Interior division.
It was announced last week that Volkswagen of America set a new Guinness World Records achievement for the “lowest fuel consumption- 48 US states for a non-hybrid car” by achieving a phenomenal 77.99 mpg (3.02 litres per 100km). In a Passat TDI Clean Diesel car, with two drivers, the record was achieved on a set of Continental’s PureContact tyres with EcoPlus technology. The record betters the previous mark of 67.9 mpg and also beats the hybrid vehicle record of 64.5 mpg.
Continental has confirmed it will invest around €100 million increasing production capacity at its Puchov truck and bus tyre factory in Slovakia, boosting capacity from some 2.6 million tyres a year to over three million tyres. Puchov, Continental’s largest truck and bus tyre production facility within the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, will also receive “extensive upgrades” to machinery and infrastructure in order to achieve maximum production efficiency.
Current estimates place the global container trade at around 600 million teu, or 20 foot container equivalents, per annum. And if the experts’ predictions pan out, this business will grow significantly in the coming years. Continental has thus identified harbour and port users as an interesting segment and has developed a completely new product range catering to their requirements. At this week’s TOC Container Supply Chain Europe exhibition in Rotterdam, the company launched its new harbour tyre portfolio, and explained the technology it hopes will optimise end-user total cost of ownership.
Possibly the most famous phrase in the history of the United States Supreme Court occurred when Justice Potter Stewart attempted to explain why, in his opinion the 1958 European film festival award-winner Les Amants should not be censored as pornographic: “I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.” Two months later James Bond uttered the same seven-word phrase in the film Goldfinger – “it” referring to gold in this instance rather than questionable motion pictures – further popularising the phrase as a sort of shorthand for the application of common sense when attempts to define a field become tedious. Some of this attitude has certainly come through to Tyrepress.com this month, after the Question of the Month queried, “Are all tyres now ‘high performance’?”
If you offer a premium “premium product” then you need to be offering a “premium service” – not just before and during the sales experience, but after it as well. That’s the philosophy held by Continental, a mindset that is increasingly resulting in upgraded processes and procedures and further use of technology to support customers and consumers after they have made their purchases. Along with the aim of offering a premium level of aftersales service to match what the company believes are the highest premium levels of its products. Several steps forward have already been made and several more are set to follow; they are all part of the company’s goal to lead the industry in this respect. And with aftersales performance amongst tyre manufacturers in general being variable, the company sees this as a particularly key way of demonstrating its overall value.
Continental’s ContiSportContact 5 P sports tyre has received further approvals from Mercedes AMG, and as such both the A-Class and C-Class will now be fitted with Continental's current top model. As with other products approved by Mercedes, they are marked with "MO" (Mercedes Original part) on the sidewall, alongside the size specification. The tyres are factory fitted and available from Mercedes car dealerships and specialist tyre dealerships. For the A-Class, AMG has approved a size 235/35 ZR 19 fitment, while size 235/35 ZR 19 and 255/30 ZR 19 tyres have been selected for the C-Class.
In order to ensure motorists maintain tyres at the correct pressure with the minimum of fuss, Continental has produced an air pressure table that covers some 700 current vehicle models from 42 manufacturers. The table provides unladen and laden values and includes each model’s various tyre options.
Late last month a new organisation was formed to represent tyre makers in a region some refer to as the “tyre capital of North America”. The establishment of the Tire Manufacturers’ Council was announced by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce on 29 May; it says the council’s aim is to “evaluate and propose policies relating to the manufacture of tyres in South Carolina.” Foundation members include Michelin North America, Bridgestone Americas and Continental Tire the Americas.
The worst of the flooding in Central Europe is now over and the time has arrived to clean up – an effort that some estimate will cost up to €12 billion. Continental has chipped in towards these efforts with a donation of €250,000.
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