After weeks of speculation South Korean tyre manufacturer Nexen Tire has confirmed that it is investing US$800 million in the construction of a new tyre factory in the city of Nošovice, in the east of the Czech Republic.
Earlier this month, Nexen Tire responded to speculation that it had selected the Czech Republic as the site for its new European tyre factory by stating that these were merely false rumours. Now it seems Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Janusz Piechociński has indicated his country is top contender. On 14 March, the Warsaw Business Journal published a comment Piechociński reportedly recently made: “Soon there will one of Europe’s largest tyre factories in Lower Silesia.”
Nexen Tire will soon make a decision on where to build its new plant in Eastern Europe, and several international news reports point to the Korean tyre maker choosing the Czech Republic. Yet Nexen denies having selected the country, or indeed any particular location, as its preferred site. Responding to news published by Czech News Agency and media questioning, an unnamed company official made clear what Nexen has already decided upon – and what it hasn’t.
In addition to supplying tyres for the Octavia, Nexen Tire now also ships products for original equipment fitment on Škoda’s latest Rapid. Nexen’s N’blue tyres are fitted to Rapid and Octavia models manufactured at Škoda’s Mladá Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic.
A successful start to the Superstars and GT Sprint International Series was enjoyed by tyre supplier Hankook. The opening round of the two SWR promoted series at Monza took place in conditions Hankook Tire describes as “tricky”, with occasional rain and cool temperatures demanding the upmost performance from drivers and tyres. The tyre maker says the Ventus slicks received “high praise” from top drivers for their “reliable performance and high level of consistency.”
According to BelTA, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency, local tyre maker OAO Belshina intends increase capacity at its giant tyre facility and add 57 and 63-inch radials to its production portfolio. Company representatives told BelTA that the project will increase the product range and output of low soil compaction wide-section radials for powerful, self-propelled agricultural machinery. The expansion will reportedly increase agricultural tyre output by 84,000 units per annum while increasing productivity.
On Sunday 1 July, retread and repair materials producer Vipal visited Donington Park with the truck racing team it has sponsored for the past two years, Buggyra of the Czech Republic. Buggyra driver David Vrsecky collected 37 points over the weekend, with a second placed finish in the final race.
On July 13 the General Court of the European Union reduced the fines imposed on a number of companies involved in a synthetic rubber price fixing cartel. The 13 companies participating in the butadiene rubber and emulsion styrene butadiene rubber (substances primarily used in tyre production) cartel between 1996 and 2002 were given fines totalling more than 519 million euros by the European Commission in November 2006. The companies appealed this decision; all, excepting Shell group companies, succeeded in gaining an annulment or reduction in their fines from Europe’s second highest court.
On June 30 a groundbreaking ceremony was held to mark the start of work to convert the former Winnebago Industries factory in the US state of Iowa into a production site for Mitas agricultural tyres. A number of civic representatives attended the ceremony in Charles City, which was hosted by project leader Vladimir Dusanek, vice-president of Mitas Tires North America.
Today Mitas Tires North America begins the process hiring staff for its new agricultural tyre plant in Charles City, Iowa. The company says it is interviewing job seekers with a view to hiring ten “foremen and core employees” who will be sent to the Czech Republic for training. A further 149 employees will be recruited later this year.
Mitas Tires, formerly CGS Tires US, reports the signing of a contract covering US$10 million worth of curing presses for its factory in Charles City, Iowa, which is currently under construction. The presses will be delivered and installed in August and September this year and the production of radial agricultural tyres will begin in 2012. In its first year of operation the plant will employ an estimated 159 workers and the company plans to employ 262 people in the US by 2016.
Italian brake product maker Brembo has announced plans to build a new production plant in the Czech Republic. The three-year, 35 million euro project will start operations in 2011. The project included rehabilitating an existing industrial building in the city of Ostrava, Brembo said.
Marketing agency Wunderman has reportedly been given the task of revising the Europe-wide customer relationship management and communications strategy for Conti Trade, the organisation in charge of Continental’s retail activities in much of Europe. In 2009 Conti Trade reported achieving a turnover of more than 700 million euros, with its Conti-Trade-Network covering more than a thousand service stations in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.
Norwegian rally ace Andreas Mikkelsen has completed a successful test in the Hankook Opel Corsa ahead of the Barum Czech Rally Zlin, to be held later this month. The 20 year old headed to the UK for his first taste of the Hankook-liveried car that is contesting selected rallies this year ahead of a full assault on the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2010.
The market for new passenger cars in Europe (EU27 and EFTA markets) displayed a modest increase of 2.4 per cent to 1,461,859 units in June on the back of scrappage incentive schemes in operation in more than ten EU Member States. June’s figures represent the first market increase in 14 months. Accumulative figures for the first half of 2009 show an 11 per cent drop in European new car registrations compared to the same period in 2008, with a total of 7,425,762 new cars registered compared to 8,346,828 the year before.
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