Michelin has reported that it has begun raising prices for its truck and construction equipment tyres in Europe to help compensate for higher commodity costs, particularly natural rubber. The price increases, which average 3 per cent to 5 per cent, began in mid- June, said Anne-Sophie Creton, a spokeswoman quoted in the International Herald Tribune.
Over the past two years since the last Reifen show, B&J Rocket, the buffing blade inventor, has developed from a well-known but slightly old-fashioned company, to a young, modern and highly productive manufacturer and sales company, according to general manager Andreas Müller.
“It has been a meteoric rise for us in Europe”, said the company’s, Tim Mahowald. “We have obviously been helped by the fluctuation in currency between the US dollar and the euro resulting in a consistent annual increase in Export sales since 2002. We are also one of the fastest growing high performance tyre wholesalers in the USA with annual sales exceeding $119 million. Our current inventory of over 150,000 UHP tyres offers a wide range of brand names. For the last four years Zisser has been the exclusive importer of the Wanli brand for the USA”.
(Akron/Tire Review) Continental AG is working with German air-freight specialists Dietrich-Honold Logistik and Honold Logistik Group has started the construction of a tyre distribution centre near Timisoara, Romania. The centre is planned to service Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
In October 2005, the Beissbarth Automotive Group was bought by the Société Générale Capital Europe and Mark Hüsges (35) became the Group’s CEO. So, with a new owner and new management – where does Beissbarth go from here?
Says Mark Hüsges: “The restructuring phase of the last 2 – 3 years is now behind us, and I now view developments as positive, though we are still facing a lot of work. The company is new, and its re-alignment will be new as well. We have succeeded in optimising our quality management, re-organising our service activities, installing market-orientated product management and, based on experience going back for many decades, initiating innovative technical development in all Beissbarth’s product sectors.”
Leading balancing weight producer Trax, received much positive feedback about its lead-free weight design during the Essen show. This was at least partly due to the company’s excellent position in hall one, but was also because the 2006 exhibition was the first Reifen Show since the lead weight ban came into place last July. Since 2004 the company has ramped up production by some 15 per cent to 100 million units a year and anticipates signing an OE deal with at a large French car manufacturer soon.
Maxxis International reports that it attracted major interest from UK distributors and dealers alike when it launched a series of new products at Reifen 2006. “Reifen 2006 proved to be an exceptionally good platform for us, as we showcased some exciting new products for the UK market, gave customers the opportunity to see the winter and all season tyres we are looking to develop and dealt with a lot of OE enquiries,” said Maxxis International UK managing director Derek McMartin.
Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK has appointed Robin Sharpe as director, Truck Tyres UK and Nigel Sowerby as manager, TruckForce, UK. Sharpe joins the company on 1 August, and will lead the continued expansion of the UK Goodyear Dunlop truck and bus tyre business, including the rollout of the recently launched TruckForce service network across the country. Announcing the appointment, UK general manager, Mark Brickhill said: “Robin has a proven record of delivering successful results in varied markets. He has particular skills in managing organisational change and building people management capabilities. His background in managing key accounts and building long term business to business relationships will enhance our truck business unit.”
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company will cut more than 150 positions in its European business unit in order to create annual savings in selling, administrative and general expenses of over $10 million. “Concurrent with efforts to grow our top line through innovative new products and marketing, we are intensely focused on reducing the company’s global cost structure,” said Goodyear chairman and CEO Robert J. Keegan. “Our objective is to achieve cost reductions totalling between $750 million and $1 billion by 2008, including $150 million to $200 million in SAG (sales administration and general) costs.”
This year there was one single goal that Sumitomo Rubber Industries or rather Falken wanted to achieve at the Reifen show in Essen: promoting the new flagship tyre – Falken FK-452. In particular there is now a new unique Falken size which was developed together with O·Z as a wheel manufacturer and aimed at SUV drivers, explains Isamu Ishida.
Following earlier reports that Cooper Tire & Rubber will idle its Texarkana, Arkansas production facility, the company now says it has decided to suspend production at all of its US plants for two weeks. Cooper Tire & Rubber Europe’s production facility at Melksham, UK, is not expected to have any shutdowns. However, sources within the company report that production here has also been cut back slightly. As the problem is due to oversupply, deliveries are not expected to be adversely affected. Cooper Tire & Rubber Europe sources all of its 4×4 lines from the US production plants.
Market observers agree that the Russian and Eastern European markets are not only interesting for Western manufacturers, but vice versa as well. However, this belief wasn’t reflected in the number of Russian exhibitors that were present at this year’s Reifen show. Polite visitors counted 1.5 Russian exhibitors in Essen. Those who see Vredestein as a Russian company now managed to count two. For Russian manufacturer Sibur-Russian Tires (SRT) the Reifen exhibition definitely was a required course, according to Igor Karavaev, strategy and business development director. Right now the Russian company is looking for a potential joint venture partner abroad and also wants to increase its exports to the European markets. Consequently, SRT’s stand mainly featured the latest flagship product – the new Cordiant brand.
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Ram-Rod Manufacturing Ltd has launched its new ‘Trakta’ bead breaker, designed for agricultural, earthmover and small plant applications, it is Ram-rod’s fourth product, all of which answer specific problems associated with tyre and wheel handling. At the same time the company also announced it is looking for companies to distribute its products across Europe.
European passenger car sales grew 12 per cent during May (up 2.5 per cent year-to-date), while the truck tyre market is said to have grown 17 per cent (up 1 per cent year-to-date). Deutsche Bank analysts report that the figures sourced from Michelin point to a completely different story in North America.
Alcoa Wheel Products Europe is to raise its forged CV aluminium wheels prices between 8 and 12 per cent, depending on the product specification. New prices will be implemented for all shipments after 31 July 2006.
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