The Board of Directors of Bandag, Incorporated, (NYSE: BDG and BDGA) today declared an increase in the regular quarterly dividend from $.32 per share to $.325 per share on the Common Stock, Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock of the Company payable January 16, 2004 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 19, 2003.
Reduced supply and increased demand – notably from Chinese companies – have pushed Indonesian rubber prices to a record high. Bad weather has restricted the amount of rubber tapped in Indonesia and other producing countries such as Thailand. Tyre grade rubber price is around 66.75 cents/lb, compared with last December, when the price was at a low of 39 cents/lb. A trader said that most deals tended to be for small quantities and short delivery. There has also been increased demand from Bridgestone and Goodyear.
Fiat and GM have agreed to delay the “put option”, whereby GM would be obliged to buy the remaining four-fifths of Fiat Auto. The two companies have agreed not to start any legal proceedings before mid-December 2004 and to continue to talk in the meantime to resolve their differences. Under the original option, the sale of Fiat could have taken place as early as January next year.
Six years after signing a solus tyre and battery agreement with Kwik-Fit Fleet in 1997, Lex Vehicle Leasing purchased its millionth tyre. Lex operates a fleet of 100,000 vehicles and the company has signed an extension to the contract until December 2005. For the record, the one millionth tyre was a Michelin 7.50 R16, fitted to an RAF-operated Land Rover Defender.
Goodyear has announced plans to close its factory at Huntsville, Alabama, by December 5th, affecting around 1,100 associates. The closure of Huntsville was widely expected, following the recently-ratified labour agreement with unions. Meanwhile, union representatives at the Kelly-Springfield plant in Tyler, Texas, say that tyre production has been cut by 11,000 units a day and up to 200 workers could be laid off by mid-November, hopefully only temporarily, says the union.
Bosal UK is to sell four of its 19 Silencer Distributors (UK) Limited exhaust wholesale branches to its long-time customer Southern Exhaust Supplies Ltd. The deal was described as “a multi-million Pound agreement” and SES has the option to purchase further SDL sites in the future. Bosal acquired SDL out of Receivership following the collapse of SDL parent company Finelist in December 2000. The purchase was made to ensure continued supply of Bosal exhaust products to the UK aftermarket in the short and medium term and was always described by Bosal as “a holding manoeuvre”.
Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. has announced its intention to sell up to 225 million US dollars of senior unsecured notes due in 2010. Hayes Lemmerz intends to use the net proceeds from the offer to make payments in connection with its Plan of Reorganisation to support its emergence from Chapter 11. Hayes Lemmerz, its U.S. subsidiaries and one subsidiary organised in Mexico filed voluntary petitions for reorganisation under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on December 5, 2001.
The European Commission has given approval to the acquisition of the Viborg tyre distribution group by Euromaster, the Michelin subsidiary. This gives the green light to the completion of the acquisition, which was first announced last December.
Indian domestic tyre production rose last December by 27 per cent, with gains in most product sectors. Total production rose to 4.642 million units from 3.661 million units in December 2001. Exports also increased to 317,000 tyres from 235,000 in December 2001.
Tyre dealer Delticom AG increased sales in the fourth quarter to 12 million Euros (4Q 2001: 7.7 m Euros). Earnings for the year were 34 million Euros (2001: 21.7 m Euros), half of which was through internet trading. Last year the company recorded 40 million accesses at its online tyre shops in eight countries. Months with highest revenues were October to December, when Delticom sdays orders were running at 1,000 per day.
TBC Corporation (Memphis/TN), one of the USA’s largest aftermarket tyre distributors has announced record sales and earnings for the forth quarter and year ended 31st December 2002.
Insurance premiums are becoming an increasing topic for concern for many businesses. T&A looks at the problem and tries to uncover the reasons why premiums are rising and some companies are having problems finding cover. Insurance is one of those business costs which we all hate but equally almost all agree are a necessity. No reasonable businessman would argue that he didn’t need insurance. Firstly there is Public Liability, which, contrary to common wisdom, is not a legal liability, nor is Product Liability for anyone making or repairing a product. Then there is Employer’s Liability Insurance, which is a legal requirement, and we haven’t even started on premises, stock, vehicles or more targeted niche policies. The big problem for everyone is that insurance premiums are climbing. There have been warnings of 100 per cent this year, and as much as 400 per cent increase over the next two years. A UK truck tyre retreader who called T&A in a complete state of shock was having to completely reconsider his business strategy and advised us of several competitors who were taking the only option open to them and shutting up shop. His premium for Premises and Business Income Insurance in December 2000 stood at £9,000, by the following year it had doubled to £18,000. This was bad enough, but December 2002 saw the premium rise to an incredible £60,000 with a £50,000 excess. At the same time his Employer’s Liability Insurance climbed from £9,000, through £20,000 to £42,000. He reckoned that his insurance premiums had risen by 700 per cent in two years. Worse still, this business had never made a single claim …
Hayes Lemmerz, the wheel manufacturer who filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code in December 2001, has reached agreement in principle with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors over a plan for reorganisation. The company hopes that the agreement will enable it to make progress and emerge from Chapter 11 within a few months.
AXA Financial Inc. has cut its shareholding in Goodyear from 20,333,870 common shares at December 31st, 2001 to 10,845,483 common shares on December 10th 2002. This represents a drop from 12.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent.
Bandag Incorporated declared an increase in the regular quarterly dividend from $.315 per share to $.32 per share on the Common Stock, Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock of the Company payable January 17, 2003 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 19, 2002.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
