Europe Archives - Page 172 of 179 - Tyrepress

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On Its Way To Becoming A Global Tyre Brand

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Recall Spreads To Europe

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

European Replacement For Bridgestone/Firestone

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Eighth Member Of RubberNetwork.com

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Investor Update From Goodyear

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Ultra High Performance Tyres

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%.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Additional Orders From Ford For Continental

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Expansion Of Production For Goodyear, Michelin

In the wake of the Firestone recall, Michelin says it has tripled tyre production in the USA as well as shipping thousands of tyres from Europe. A special customer service centre is handling 8,000 calls a day. Goodyear plans to provide “more than half” of the tyres replaced because of the recall and has increased production of Ford-approved tyres tenfold. The company has increased shipments to 9,000 outlets, including company-owned stores, independent tyre retailers and Ford dealers.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Malaysian Tyres Now Accepted World-wide

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers – Malaysian Tyre Manufacturers Industry Group claims that Malaysian manufactured tyres now conform to the highest international standards. Products have now been accepted in over 40 countries, including markets with strict regulations such as in Europe, Australia, US and Japan. Malaya’s four major manufacturers, DMIB Bhd, Goodyear Malaysia Bhd, Silverstone Bhd and Sime Tyres International Sdn exported over 2 million tyres in 2000.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Two More Tyres For Europe From Cooper-Avon

Cooper-Avon has introduced another two new tyres to its range of products available in Europe. First of these is the Lifeliner Touring SLE (Sport Luxury Edition) and it is the first premium touring tyre from Cooper to be available in three speed ratings; T, H and V. The second product is the Discoverer M+S, which is a winter tyre made in Findlay Ohio, but designed for European roads. It features a number of pin holes for those countries where studded tyres are acceptable.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

First Quarter Outlook Announced By Hayes Lemmerz Hayes

Lemmerz International, Inc. – the world’s leading global supplier of automotive and commercial highway wheels – announced that first quarter 2001 diluted earnings per share is projected to be a loss of $(.27) compared to earnings per share of $.51 in first quarter 2000, and compared to a loss of $(.58) per share in fourth quarter 2000. Sales are lower than the record levels experienced in first quarter 2000, but have rebounded significantly from the levels experienced in the fourth quarter of 2000, when North American car producers reduced volumes to adjust light vehicle inventories. Ron Cucuz, Chairman and CEO: “Light vehicle production in North America has stabilised compared to the fourth quarter and volumes have strengthened slowly through the first three months of our current fiscal year. Europe and other operations outside of North America continue to perform very well.”

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Official Opening Of Bridgestone Poznan Plant

Bridgestone’s tyre factory at Poznan, Poland, has been officially opened. It is the company’s sixth tyre factory in Europe and one of 46 across the globe. It produces 10,000 Bridgestone and Firestone tyres daily, mainly high- and ultra-high performance tyres, with a workforce of 540. The factory is a joint venture with state-owned Stomil Poznan SA.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

TARRC Seminar

The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC) has been deeply involved for the past two years in an EU-funded CRAFT project, the aim of which is to achieve better assessment of new tyre casing integrity in order to increase the number of tyres retreaded in Europe. TARRC hosted a seminar to discuss the impact of existing and proposed regulations on retreaders and some findings from the CRAFT project. The reason for the CRAFT project was based on a concern by retreaders that the quality of some new tyre casings was decreasing, with the danger that the industry could be deprived of its basic raw material. Principal research objectives included the development of new tests in order to predict the retreadability of new tyres, the establishment of a best practice drum test and a league table of tyre brands, rated according to their retreadability. The project will be finished this year. In investigating retreadability, TARRC tested a number of tyres in accordance with Regulation 54, the standard against which new tyres are tested. Under this standard, tyres are drum tested for 47 hours. The results were extremely surprising and indicate that either Regulation 54 is deeply flawed, or that the tyre industry has a problem. Testing 295/80 R22.5 M-rated tyres, the results showed a failure rate among new tyres of 20.8%. The new tyre manufacturers usually carry out their own tests and their failure rates are nothing like this figure, which begs the question why is there such a disparity between manufacturers’ results and the findings from TARRC? Under the new retreading Regulation 109, tyres are chosen and tested at random by an outside agency. Is there any independent validation of the in-house testing of new tyres? A proposal was made that new tyre manufacturers and retreaders cooperate in a programme of cross-testing new tyres in order to try and solve this apparent anomaly. Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Re-organisation For Goodyear Dunlop Europe

Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe has announced the appointment of three managing directors for France, Germany and the UK. Sylvain Valensi will head up France, Gerd Grünenwald takes control in Germany and Marco Molinari returns to the UK for his second stint as MD. Goodyear GB’s current MD – Steve MacDonald – will retire after 27 years with the company.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Ireland To Get Kwik-Fit Mobile Service

Kwik-Fit Fleet is to launch its mobile tyre fitting service in Ireland, servicing mainly business car users at their offices or homes. Kwik-Fit currently has 37 service points in Ireland, with plans to expand. When it comes to mobile service units, the group has 538 vehicles operating in Europe.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors