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Guangzhou Pearl River – Six Brands, One Company

Guangzhou Pearl River Rubber Tyre Ltd. is the product of a Chinese-international joint venture. Although in business since 1970, the company benefited significantly from the establishment in 1993 of a 30/70 partnership between the Guangzhou GuangXiang Enterprise Group and Carham Assets Limited. Since that time the company has grown into an enterprise with half-year revenues in excess of £19 million (January-June 2006).

The company, which has its headquarters in Guangzhou city, Southern China, employs almost two thousand staff, including 150 technical experts, and its primary focus is the manufacture and marketing of commercial vehicle bias tyres. In 1983 Guangzhou Pearl River was the recipient of production line and inspection technology and equipment from Dunlop in the UK, and today the company takes pride in their state-of-the-art facilities.

10th May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Price Fixing Charges Reveal Rubbery Figures

The European Commission has raided the premises of a number of rubber product manufacturers, including several also involved in tyre production, as part of a global investigation into price fixing practices. Amongst the companies investigated are Japan’s Bridgestone and Yokohama, along with Grimsby based rubber and plastic technology specialist Dunlop Oil & Marine, a division of Germany’s ContiTech AG and Trelleborg Industrie SAS, the French subsidiary of Sweden’s Trelleborg AB.

“I can confirm that yesterday and today Commission officials have undertaken unannounced inspections at premises of several marine hose producers in France, Italy and the United Kingdom,” Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd informed the media. “The Commission coordinated its investigative measures with the United States Department of Justice in the context of a suspected worldwide cartel concerning marine hoses.”

8th May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Reshuffles Management For Strategic Customer Focus

Goodyear Dunlop Tyres Ltd has announced a number of new appointments designed to strengthen the company’s customer focused management team. Significantly, all but one of these appointments is as a result of internal promotions. The company has also formed a new Customer Strategy team. This team will be led by Mark Davison, who joins the company from Nestle on 8 May. Davison’s role as Customer Strategy Director will be to lead the development and delivery of long-term customer strategies across all business units. (Consumer, Truck, Motorcycle and Off-the-Road).

4th May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Shares Plans to ‘Get There’ at Dealer Meeting

(Akron/Tire Review) Last year was “turbulent, dramatic,” said Robert Keegan, Goodyear chairman and CEO, in front of more than 2,000 attendees at the tyremaker’s annual dealer meeting, held Feb. 3-5 in Orlando, Fla. “About the only thing that didn’t hit you and I in 2006 was plague and pestilence.” Reflecting on one of the longest work stoppages in Goodyear history, Keegan said the company’s relationship with dealers was put to the test late last year.

“We needed your support more than at any time in many decades,” Keegan told dealers. He thanked dealers and even credited them with the strike’s successful resolution. “You supported us in a way that, frankly, drove for us a better agreement with the union that we could not have had without that support,” he said.

19th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

NZ Government to Test Safety of Winter Tyres

Winter tyres are to be subjected to official testing in New Zealand following numerous allegations that they have contributed to fatal accidents. The tyres will be jointly tested by the New Zealand Police serious crash unit and Land Transport New Zealand (LTNZ), the government body responsible for vehicle and driver standards.

Coroners’ reports into several fatal accidents have called into question the suitability of winter tyres, known as snow tyres in New Zealand, for highway driving conditions. Various reports have referred to the tyres as a “matter which required urgent consideration” and products that “did not appear to be suitable for routine highway driving.”

19th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo a Recommended Buy – Broker

The online stock broking firm India Infoline has indicated that Apollo Tyres is a prudent share purchase, and has placed a recommended buy rating on the stock with a target of Rs 397 (£4.74). India Infoline describes Apollo as the leading commercial vehicle tyre player in India and adds that the company is expanding at a rapid pace, both organically and inorganically. The brokerage firm expects Apollo’s topline and bottom line to grow by 14.3 per cent and 26.2 per cent respectively between the 2006 and 2009 financial years.

Apollo is expanding passenger car tyre capacity by 1,100,000 units and light commercial tyre capacity by 100,000 units by the end of the 2007 financial year, increasing total production to 410 tonnes per day. To add to the tyremaker’s sharemarket desirability, Apollo have also recently commenced production of its Dura Tyre range of retreads, scheduled for initial launch in northern India in May 2007.

17th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop GP Racer Wins Magazine Tyre Test

Dunlop, fresh from victory in the opening two rounds of the 2007 British Superbike Championship, scored another win in an independent test of superbike tyres. The test was conducted by leading UK monthly magazine ‘Superbike’, who tested the leading fast-road and track day tyres on the market. All the tyres tested were road-legal but aimed at the fast-growing track day market, where owners take road bikes onto race tracks where they can exploit the full-potential of their bikes.

‘Superbike’ tested eight different tyre brands at the demanding Albacete circuit in Spain. The magazine mixed subjective feedback with measured lap times, using three expert riders and a Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike. The Dunlop GP Racer was declared equal first in the test, and also secured the fastest average lap time of the eight contenders. Superbike’s Jon Pearson declared the Dunlop-shod bike to “feel planted at full lean, especially on the faster, longer corners.”

16th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Increases Commercial Tyre Prices

(Akron/Tire Review) As of May 1, Goodyear is increasing prices on its commercial tyres by up to 5 per cent.

The increase impacts Goodyear, Dunlop and Kelly brands of medium truck tyres. In addition, Goodyear has also hiked prices on OTR tyre tread rubber by up to 5 per cent as of April 2.

10th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Sameer Africa Reports Losses

Sameer Africa recently announced that it had accrued 22 million Kenyan shillings (£164,000) of losses after sales were hit by a sudden influx low price imported tyres. Speaking during the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the firm’s Mombasa Road Plant, Sameer Africa Board Chairman Naushad Merali said the sales nosedive of locally manufactured tyres followed the reduction of imported tyre tariffs from 35 to 10 per cent. Merali however noted that the fact Bridgestone has not withdrawn its 14.5 per cent share-holding in the company was a sign of Bridgestone’s confidence in Sameer Africa’s potential.

According to local news sources, Sameer has made “strategic alliances” with other international tyre manufacturers to increase its product offering in the regional market. The Kenya times reported that this includes off-take agreements with brands such as Bridgestone, Dunlop South Africa and Hankook.

30th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Europa Tyres and Goodyear Dunlop Cut ATV Tyre Price

Europa Tyres Ltd of Langport and Spalding in conjunction with Goodyear/Dunlop have reduced the selling price of Goodyear and Dunlop ATV tyres. The price cut covers the whole ranve from the 23×11.00-10 Dunlop KT869 that fits the Diesel Kawasaki Mule 2500/2510 or the more unusual 24×11-10 Goodyear wrangler sport fitted to the Polaris Xpress 300. “With our new Goodyear and Dunlop pricing structure we can now supply the trade with a quality product that is fitted original equipment to many Honda, John Deere, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Bombardier and Polaris quads to name a few at a competitive price,” company representatives said in an official statement. Europa carries a range of over 20 sizes in both Goodyear and Dunlop brands, and over 25 different patterns.

26th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

A Brief History of the Wheel

It is not known whether the first individual to contemplate the design of a wheel had vehicles or potter’s throwing tables in mind, but archaeologists have established that the first wooden wheel was created, for whatever purpose, more than 5,000 years ago. However it was some time afterwards that a stroke of genius led to the replacement of the solid disk wheel by one featuring spokes. This particular development made the transport of goods over longer distances possible for the first time. Therefore, if the invention of the wheel was man’s first revolution, then the development of the wheel with spokes could be seen as the second. And as a result mobility became possible, although still as a privilege for the wealthy.

26th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Snetterton to Host Great & British Pre-Season Test Day

On Monday 2nd April, the paddock will be open to the Dunlop Great & British championships and their teams for the first ever pre-season test. With a full day of testing, the championships of Dunlop Great & British Festivals will provide teams and their cars a head start in preparation for the first round of the Dunlop Great & British Festivals, on 29th April, at Snetterton.

The Dunlop Great & British Festival organisers announced in February that championships have been inundated with new entrants eager to compete in 2007 and although teams have not formally unveiled their cars, many have announced their attendance to the pre-season test.

26th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Europa Tyres and Goodyear Dunlop Cut ATV Tyre Price

Europa Tyres Ltd of Langport and Spalding in conjunction with Goodyear/Dunlop have reduced the selling price of Goodyear and Dunlop ATV tyres. The price cut covers the whole ranve from the 23×11.00-10 Dunlop KT869 that fits the Diesel Kawasaki Mule 2500/2510 or the more unusual 24×11-10 Goodyear wrangler sport fitted to the Polaris Xpress 300. “With our new Goodyear and Dunlop pricing structure we can now supply the trade with a quality product that is fitted original equipment to many Honda, John Deere, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Bombardier and Polaris quads to name a few at a competitive price,” company representatives said in an official statement. Europa carries a range of over 20 sizes in both Goodyear and Dunlop brands, and over 25 different patterns.

26th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

New Dunlop SP Sport FastResponse in ADAC Test Success

Only days after its official launch, Goodyear Dunlop has released details of the new Dunlop SP Sport FastResponse’s recent success in German ADAC tests. ADAC, the German equivalent of the AA, awarded the FastResponse with the top “highly recommendable” grade in its 2007 summer tyre test. The ADAC testers said they were impressed most impressed with the tyre’s performance on both wet and dry roads.

23rd March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Reworking Credit Facilities

(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear is refinancing some of its credit lines with an eye to reducing interest expenses, the tyremaker announced yesterday.

To be refinanced are a $1.5 billion credit facility due on Apr. 30, 2010; a $1.2 billion term loan also due on Apr. 30, 2010; and a 505 million euro credit facility for its Goodyear Dunlop Tire Europe subsidiary also due on that date.

Goodyear said it is looking to extend or amend the credit facilities by two to four years, staggering their due dates from 2012 to 2014.

22nd March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors