Hankook Tire chief operating officer Europe and member of the board of directors, Jin-Wook Choi will leave his current position following 38 years with the company. Choi will take on a new consultancy role in the manufacturer’s global headquarters, having served more than thirteen years at top management positions around the world.
In November Triangle announced that it is building its fifth plant in Weihai, Shandong Province, China. The news, which was first revealed at the SEMA show in Las Vegas in early November, followed renewed speculation about whether or not the company was planning to build a Russian factory earlier this year. This plans suggestions were denied by managers. However Triangle is internationalising fast and has been operating sales operations in dozens of countries for decades now, Weihai is really the company’s home.
Around US$63 million is to be invested in Bridgestone’s Camaçari tyre plant in Brazil in order to increase capacity for manufacturing passenger car and light truck radials there. Work to expand the factory is expected to be completed in time for a start of increased production in May 2015, and from that date the Camaçari plant will be equipped to deliver an additional 2,100 tyres a day, giving the facility a total production capacity in excess of 10,000 tyres a day. Almost 100 new jobs will be created at the site in Bahia state as a result of the expansion.
Expansion work on Yokohama Rubber’s ‘TireTestCenter of Asia’ is complete. The company reported on 16 December that a ceremony marking the conclusion of related construction was held at the site on 9 October. The expansion adds four new test courses – a 2.5-kilometre dry-test course and a 1.5-kilometre wet-test course for handling tests, a skid pad and a corner hydroplaning test road. Yokohama says the proving ground expansion enables it to conduct complete tests of its tyres’ handling and vibration performance.
The Contidrom test facility operated by Continental near its Hannover headquarters in Germany has been named ‘Proving Ground of the Year 2013’ by Automotive Testing Technology International magazine. The 12-person judging panel presiding over the 2013 awards are said to have been particularly impressed by the Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA) facility, which opened at the Contidrom site in autumn 2012.
The Continental truck and bus tyre factory in Otrokovice, Czech Republic will be significantly expanded, the tyre maker announced today. A total of €165 million will be invested over a period of five years to ultimately double truck and bus radial production capacity at plant to close on 1.5 million units per annum. More than 300 new jobs will be created throughout all production areas, and the enlarged plant will service the American and Russian markets in addition to the areas it currently supplies.
Giti Tire has moved its UK headquarters to new 3,000 square foot offices in Northwich, Cheshire in a move the company described as preparation for “British and pan-European expansion”. According to company, representatives, the new facility will house the passenger car, SUV and light truck (PCR) and commercial truck and bus (TBR) operations across the three main brands, GT Radial, Primewell and Runway.
Hungary’s Ministry of National Economy has designated Bridgestone’s passenger car tyre factory in Tatabanya its “investor of the month” as part of its “Award for Successful Companies” programme. The accolade, one of three given under the programme, is given to corporations whose activities contribute significantly to the Hungarian economy and export growth, increase local employment and who have invested at least €5 million within the region in recent months. Bridgestone was acknowledged for the expansion it is now implementing at its Tatabanya plant.
GfK has been carrying out research on car tyres in India since January 2013 and says that, although demand for passenger cars in India has fallen somewhat short of expectations this year, the replacement passenger car tyre market is thriving with robust sales reported for car and SUV tyres in the last three quarters. Car owners in the top 43 cities in India bought more than 5.5 million tyres in first nine months of the year; with the third quarter sales volume having surged by a substantial 11 per cent over the previous quarter.
Earlier this year Bridgestone Americas reported completing a capacity expansion project at its Aiken County plant in South Carolina. The US$346 million investment increased output of passenger car and light truck radials by 2,750 units a day. Now local media sources state the company is looking to increase its plant workforce; Leslie Wilhite, Bridgestone Americas’ manager of community and corporate relations, is quoted as saying the company is looking to fill 850 corporate and contractor positions, starting in January.
In October, the EU car market recorded a 4.7 per cent increase, totalling 1,004,935 units. It was the first time since September 2011 that demand for new cars had risen in two consecutive months.
From January to October, new car registrations amounted to 10,006,807 units, or 3.1 per cent less than in the same period last year.
The Belgium-based Bosal Group has opened its first production facility for automotive emission control systems in Chongqing, China. According to the company, the new 2700 m2 facility in Dadukou District will produce innovative emission control systems and components for passenger car manufacturers in the region. The factory is reporteldy equipped with a latest technology production line including laser welding and CNC roll forming. The news comes less than 8 months after the firm closed its UK production operations with the loss of over 100 jobs.
German logistics development company Honold is currently building Continental a new tyre warehouse in Aachen, direct on Germany’s border with Belgium and The Netherlands. When complete early next year the warehouse will have storage room for some 800,000 tyres and be able to handle the shipping of up to 35,000 tyres a day.
Carlisle City Council has approved Pirelli Tyres Limited’s plans to enlarge its plant in the city’s southeast. At the meeting of the council’s Development Control Committee on 15 November, the plan for the extensions to the Daltson Road production facility and storage area was “approved with conditions”.
Trelleborg Wheel Systems has signed an agreement to acquire the industrial tyre business belonging to Italian firm Pircher Alfred s.a.s. The business specialises in the distribution and service of industrial tyres, such as those fitted on forklift trucks. Trelleborg says the acquisition further strengthens and enlarges its European industrial tyre distribution network, and offers the opportunity to further grow the Interfit industrial tyre service business that the company took on through its acquisition of Watts Tyre Group in early 2011.
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