Delticom has expanded its range of industrial and agricultural tyres in the UK with the addition og Turkish tyre brand Anlas.
According to the company, Anlas is a market leader in Turkey. Manufactured in Europe, its products offer high-quality workmanship and an excellent price-performance ratio. Delticom already has a well-established relationship with Anlas, after adding scooter and moped tyres to its UK online shops in 2012.
The release of 2012 statistics gathered by Bridgestone while taking out more than 28,000 free tyre safety checks in Europe provide grim reading. The world’s largest tyre manufacturer’s figures suggest that tyre care and awareness has continued to deteriorate in the region. The most alarming change from data gathered in the same way in 2011 is an increase of 25 per cent in the number of tyres either underinflated or beyond the legal limit. While the European Union has in place many strategies for making roads safer – it is a specified goal of the EU tyre label – and organisations such as TyreSafe in the UK grow both membership and influence, Bridgestone’s data suggests that the most basic tyre checks remain beyond too many of the continent’s drivers.
Giti Tire has helped an employee at Thwaites Brewery to achieve the fundraising target for his first London Marathon, following a request made to a local dealer while fitting GT Radial’s Champiro UHP1 tyres. Gary Ackerley’s request reached managing director Europe, Richard Lyons, who was happy to offer a donation towards his fund for Children with Cancer UK.
If the weather in Europe is anything it is fickle, and the last couple of years have thrown several extremes our way. Hankook recognises that all-season tyres may be very much at home in our unpredictable conditions and has introduced an entirely new range of medium to long haul truck tyres for all-season purposes. The range is called Smartflex and consists of each three main sizes for steer and drive axle tyres. Hankook says the M+S marked tyres are designed to handle increased load capacities and to provide driving safety under changing weather conditions.
While applauding the Prime Minister's pledge to "keep going" to block future fuel duty rises, the Road Haulage Association is still, as one of the original backers of the hugely successful campaign group FairFuelUK, committed to finding a permanent solution to the thorny issue of high fuel prices.
Last Sunday saw some tightly contested drift battles at the Mondello Motorsport Park, with James Deane coming out on top in the first round of the Irish Drifting Championship. In his Falken sponsored Mazda RX-7, the 21-year-old Irishman saw off rivals Gavin Lenihan and Shane O’Sullivan from Team Japspeed, who took second and third place respectively.
In its interim report covering January – March 2013, Sweden’s Trelleborg “noted a strong first quarter despite weaker market conditions”, or in other words, its figures are down on a year earlier but show a respectable performance given the current market. The company anticipates its performance in the second quarter will be on a par with the first quarter.
In response to questioning about low plant utilisation in Europe, Michelin CFO Marc Henry told participants in the company’s Q1 2013 earnings call that the tyre maker will consider its options in the coming months. Michelin's European passenger car plants are currently running at 75 to 80 per cent of capacity and its truck plants at 65 to 70 per cent, he shared.
Thailand based manufacturer Stamford Sport Wheels (SSW) has launched a new alloy wheel design collection into the UK and European wheel markets, the Euro Technik. The company says the new range marks a first venture into Europe having become established in South East Asia. The design has been exclusively produced in a European style targeting prestige and luxury high performance marques.
Reporting on the past winter, ATS Euromaster group sales director Peter Fairlie says the fast-fit network ordered significantly more winter tyres than a year earlier.
It seems being spoiled for choice may also spoil our chances of receiving the tyre service we want, when we want it. Michelin’s head of Fleet, Dave Crinson, opines that a wholesale shift in the way drivers view tyre appointments needs to occur due to the number of tyres now available on the market. This diversity means drivers who arrive unannounced at fast-fit suppliers may end up with a second or third choice tyre, or may be required to return at a later date.
Rimstock introduced a range of Team Dynamics winter alloy wheels for the first time this season. The company has been impressed with the results, labelling the new initiative “a success” despite a mostly quite mild 2012-13 winter season. The company said it is “looking to expand the programme further for 2013”, with “two large OE marques” interested in adopting a winter programme. The programme works similarly to the trend of storing summer tyres in “tyre hotels” over winter widely used in Europe, but with take-up in the UK only occurring over the last few winters. Rimstock believes it is becoming attractive with the trying grip conditions and poor road maintenance of Britain’s winter roads, to protect original equipment wheels when temperatures drop.
Dr. Ron Commander, head of Lanxess’ Butyl Rubber business unit, will retire at the end of this year. Before this takes effect, the 62-year old will spend his final six months or so with the specialty chemicals company in a new, Canada-based role. Commander’s new position will take effect on 1 July, and on that date he will be succeeded as head of the Butyl Rubber business unit by Dr. Guenther Weymans, who is currently head of Lanxess’ Keltan Elastomers business unit.
Following growing global demand for its Mini range, owners BMW have announced that the iconic marque will be produced outside Europe for the first time later this year to cater for growth markets in other continents. This is in line with BMW's "production follows the market" strategy.
Three times BTCC winner, Matt Neal, is to judge Dunlop’s annual car livery competition. The Europe wide competition aims to find a winning livery for the Dunlop Ferrari that will race in the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
Motorsport and car fans, design students and artists (aged 16 years and over*) from across Europe are invited to take part. Each country will have a competition with four entries put forward to the European final. Dunlop is proud to announce that Matt Neal will choose the best four UK designs as part of this pan European competition.
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