Henry Johnson, who was VP Goodyear Eastern Europe and then VP Goodyear Dunlop/Europe, has now been appointed Managing Director of the SBU (Sales Business Unit) Truck Tyres Europe. His successor is Arthur de Bok, who was previously with Procter and Gamble.
Goodyear has published its monthly investor update, giving brief details of the company’s performance in various world markets. In North America in October, industry shipments of OE and replacement tyres fell. Goodyear made production cutbacks, which continued during November. European industry-wide replacement tyre shipments fell for both passenger and commercial and Goodyear’s sales followed this trend. For OE, Goodyear shipments of consumer tyres were up on last year while those of commercial tyres fell. In Eastern Europe, Goodyear’s shipments of OE and replacement tyres fell from October 2000 levels. Replacement shipments in Latin America fell and OE shipments rose, while in Asia, OE and replacement shipments both rose.
Pirelli is to spend more than 11 million Pounds on extending its factory at Carlisle in the UK to manufacture tyres for 4WD vehicles. For some time, Carlisle has been Pirelli’s “centre of excellence” for SUV tyres and the factory produced 530,000 SUV tyres last year. The new investment will see this figure rise to 1.1 million next year and eventually to 1.6 million. 80 per cent of these will be exported to Europe and the USA. Carlisle also produces high performance tyres and total unit production at the plant will reach 4.25 million units in 2002.
There is speculation in some business newspapers that Wolfgang Reitzle, boss of PAG (the luxury car segment), might leave his post. Reitzle is a close friend of Jacques Nasser, who recently had to quit his job as CEO of the Ford Group. It is said that the European luxury segment could become part of Ford Europe and lose its independence.
Michelin’s PAX System has been named as the runner up in the Transport section of the Business Innovation Awards, handed out by the Wall Street Journal Europe. A panel of fifteen judges, covering all aspects of business disciplines, decided on the winners from more than 220 nominations. The paper also revealed that the PAX system is to be incorporated on the Edonis, a car from Italian company B. Engineering SRL, designed to break the world speed record.
Successor to the ZE-502, which proved a major market success in Europe, Japanese tyre manufacturer introduces its new product, “ZE-512”, to the European market. The tyre shall set new standards in friction resistance, aquaplaning and handling on wet surfaces. The development of the ZE-512 focused on comfort-oriented, well-balanced properties. The “two and one” profile block and the side profile’s 5-phase shifted random pitch variation minimise noise and maximise steering precision throughout the entire life of the tyre. The ZE 512 will appear in 41 dimensions.
Eight Goodyear factories have earned the DaimlerChrysler Gold Award, given in recognition of outstanding service. Seven of the plants are in North America and one is in Europe, at Philippsburg, in Germany. Goodyear was rated as “excellent” in the areas of quality, delivery, competitive pricing and technology and “acceptable” in customer support.
Simex Europe has been in existence since 1988, gradually increasing the size of its Monza range of car tyres and steadily increasing sales volumes. Then, in August last year, disaster struck when the Montinex group went into Administrative Receivership, as the group was Simex’s biggest customer, accounting for 60% of its turnover. With most of its eggs in one basket, it was, according to MD Raof Daud, a “near death experience” for the company. Simex fought back by going into car tyre distribution and growing its dealer network, and the come-back has been long and hard, with the company poised to be back in the black for the first time since the crisis. An exciting time for a new man to come in to take charge – Mr. A. K. Lee has recently taken over as General Manager, as Raof Daud has moved to another company within the Sime Darby group after nine years as MD of Simex.
Vredestein boss Rob Oudshoorn is interested in making the Vredestein brand – already well-known in Europe – a global brand. In Asia, T-Trac and Protrac tyres are produced by sister company Elangperdana Indonesia for use in the Asia region of Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China etc. The Importer Tyreland is the business partner at the other end of the world in New Zealand. This has been learned from the latest company brochure News Flashes which is distributed to the trade. At the moment it is not easy to cover Vredestein stories due to the fact that there is obviously no press office in the Dutch company.
Ford is planning to recall 23,000 vehicles sold in Europe in order to replace the tyres. The vehicles in question are mainly Explorers and the figure is around 60 per cent of Explorers sold over the past decade. Other models affected are Ford Expedition SUVs and Ranger pick-ups, although the numbers of these are small.
Bridgestone/Firestone is offering to replace, free of charge, a small number of tyres fitted to European Ford Explorers even though there have been no tyre related roll-overs in Europe. The tyres are P235/75R15 and P255/70R16 Wilderness AT with DOT numbers ending in 4, 5, 6, or 7. Additionally, these tyres with the last three digits of the DOT number from 108 through to 188 are also included.
Toyo Tire & Rubber has become the eighth manufacturer to sign up to RubberNetwork.com, the world-wide electronic purchasing and procurement marketplace. RubberNetwork.com will be launched in North America next month and further launches are planned for July (Europe) and September (Asia). The eight members represent over half of the world’s tyre manufacturing capacity.
The latest investor update from Goodyear reflects the worldwide state of the motor industry. US and European passenger car replacement sales were above last year’s figures, but commercial sales were down. OE shipments in the US were down, but level with last year’s figures in the European Union. Eastern Europe showed a flat replacement market and a 20% drop in OE supply. In Latin America replacement sales were down, but OE was up in May. A similar picture was painted in Asia. Throughout the world market increasing raw materials costs and reduction in auto manufacture output has affected trade adversely.
Ultra High Performance Tyres (uhp) are not only for super sports cars nor high performance marques, but also for the top models of volume car makers. They are the biggest customers of the European uhp tyre manufacturers nowadays. From the middle of the decade, uhp OE sales begin to slacken, but aftermarket sales continue to grow. At the moment the OE sector accounts for the majority of uhp tyre sales, but this will turn around in a couple of years. Nowadays, 16″ tyres are usually the smallest in the uhp market; 17″ and 18″ increase, 19″ and 20″ are still comparatively rare. 55 and 50 series aspect ratios are the usual sizes, but tyres as low as 30 series can be fitted. Looking ahead, the V speed rating looks set to explode. In W/Y/Z speed ratings, the premium tyre manufacturers dominate, but for V-rated tyres, the not-so-well-known brands can get a slice of the cake. In 1999, sales of V, W, Y and Z-rated tyres in Western Europe were in excess of 20 million units and by 2005, this will be doubled. In volume terms, Germany will be the biggest market – even today, one in three uhp tyres sold in Europe is bought by a German. But Germany is the leader only on numbers sold; when it comes to uhp tyres as a percentage of the tyre market as a whole, last year this sector accounted for 30% of the German market. The leader in percentage terms was Switzerland, with 38%.
Continental has announced that it has received an additional order from Ford for over 2 million car tyres. Whether or not this is at the expense of Firestone is unclear. Continental now claims to be one of the biggest tyre suppliers for Ford in Europe, if not the biggest. In the US the tyre manufacturer is in dire straits. The Continental General tyre company is facing a loss in the US this year of up to 100 million Euro despite the fact that Continental also took advantage of the Firestone recall on the US replacement market. It is expected that Continental General will make another loss next year of up to 50 million Euro. The company also announced a restructuring program for the North American tyre market, aimed at saving costs of 90 million Dollars within 3 years. Presently Ford is not accepting General tyres as OE in the USA after the NHTSA said that the claim rate of the General Ameri 550 S is much higher than the Firestone tyre, which it replaces.
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