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Awards Recognise Eco-Friendly Innovations

The inaugural Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence were presented at the recent Tire Technology Expo, in Cologne and there was a marked emphasis on environmentally-friendly technologies and products.

Michelin picked up the Tire Technology of the Year Award for its continuing development of its already-established Energy Saver range of tyres. In the latest development (for tyres for the Peugeot 306) a new silica-based compound helps reduce rolling resistance, saving fuel and lowering carbon emissions.

7th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Rhodia Forms Company to Build & Operate China Plant

Rhodia has formed a new company to manage the construction and subsequent operation of the new silica facility it has planned for China. Details of the Qingdao facility, the second Rhodia will operate in the city, were initially disclosed last November.

The new legal entity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rhodia, to be known as RSQC (Rhodia Silica Qingdao Chengyang). The company will have an initial share capital of approximately 16 million euros. The Qingdao plant is expected to commence operations in July 2009, and will focus on producing highly dispersible silica for the rapidly growing energy-efficient tyre market. The facility will be constructed using a modular design to enable its easy expansion.

Rhodia already operates seven precipitated silica plants around the world. These are located in France, Italy, Venezuela, Brazil, Korea, China and the USA.

3rd March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Renault Retail Adding 9 Fast Fit Facilities in 2008

The Renault Retail Group has plans to add nine new fast-fit branches to its network during 2008 following the success of existing Renault Retail sites across the UK. The 100 per cent Renault owned network can provide motorists with a range of products and services, including tyres, brake pads, shock absorbers and oil changes.

The first Renault Minute fast fit facilities were installed in the group’s flagship London West, Birmingham and Manchester branches, and subsequently the company’s London city, London East, Cardiff, Leicester, Cannock, Liverpool and Bolton sites were also upgraded accordingly. This year’s expansion will now cover the Renault Retail dealerships at Oldham, Wirral, Swansea, Wolverhampton, Slough, Watford, Orpington, Dartford, and Croydon.

26th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Titan to Increase Giant OTR and Agricultural Tyre Capacity

Production of giant OTR tyres at Titan International is set to markedly increase, says company chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor Jr. At a speech given to the Tire Industry Association in Hawaii on February 22 Taylor said that the company expects to produce more than twice as many giant OTR tyres as previously estimated.

25th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

GPX To Close Canada Factory

OTR, industrial and specialty tyre manufacturer GPX International Tire Corporation has disclosed its intention to cease operations at its solid tyre production facility in Mississauga, Canada and “consolidate its solid tyre manufacturing operations in Gorham, Maine and Xingtai, China.” This planned closure and consolidation is part of the company’s overall plan to rationalise its wholly owned manufacturing facilities, said GPX in a statement. These plans will see North American operations focusing on specialty products whilst the plant in China will produce the “longer run commodity type” products.

22nd February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop Aircraft Starts Work on China Retreading Facility

Dunlop Aircraft Tyres, the world’s only specialist aircraft tyre manufacturer, today announced it has begun preliminary ground work investigations and held a traditional stone-laying ceremony on the site of its new retreading facility in China. The move follows the agreement of terms and signing of a contract between joint venture partners Dunlop Aircraft Tyres (63%), Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (HAECO) (28%) and Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (TAECO) (9%).

Birmingham, UK-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres will be the majority partner at the new facility in Jinjiang, Fujian Province. It is due be operational early next year as Dunlop Taikoo (Jinjiang) Aircraft Tyres Limited.

21st February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

New Report Values UK Tyre Market at £1.36 Billion

The latest report released by Dublin based company Research and Markets indicates that the UK market for tyres and tubes was worth an estimated £1.36 billion at manufacturers’ selling prices in 2007. This figure represents a 5 per cent increase over the previous year and 15.3 per cent on the market in 2003. Local production continues to decline but is more than compensated by strong exports.

20th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Deal Signed – Kumho Coming to America

In ceremonies yesterday, Kumho Tire Co. formally signed an agreement to build a US$225 million tyre manufacturing facility on a 127-acre site in Sofkee Industrial Park in Macon, Georgia. Attending the signing ceremony were Sae Chul Oh, Kumho’s CEO and president; Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue; Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development; Macon Mayor Robert Reichert; and Charlie Bishop, chairman of the Bibb County Board of Commissioners.

The first phase of the greenfield plant, said Kumho, will cost $165 million with an annual production capacity of 2.1 million passenger and light truck/SUV tyres, destined for both OE and replacement markets in North America. The second phase will cost $60 million and will raise annual capacity to 3.1 million tyres. The 5.5 million-square-foot plant will feature Kumho’s automated APU manufacturing system, and will eventually employ 450 people.

31st January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Barrick to Fund Yokohama OTR Tyre Expansion

Further to the January 30 announcement that Yokohama Rubber has signed an OTR tyre supply agreement with Barrick Gold Corporation, the mining giant disclosed it has provided Yokohama with financial assistance to upgrade its facilities in preparation for supply.

The 5 billion yen (£23.57 million) expansion includes a new building, production line, and related equipment, and according to a statement released by Barrick these additions will be primarily funded by a US$35 million loan made available by the company. Start up, Barrick adds, is scheduled for late in the fourth quarter of 2008.

31st January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyrexpo Asia 2009 Opens for Business 6 Months Early

Tyrexpo Asia 2009 organiser, ECI International, has distributed more than 10,000 thousand brochures about the seventh staging of the popular tyre and equipment show. The exhibition will again take place in the Singapore Expo Centre, but the dates have been brought forward by six months to 24-26 March 2009. Traditionally held in September, the show has opted for the earlier dates to secure an exclusive slot in the increasingly-congested Asian exhibition calendar. The move is also designed to give exhibitors and visitors greater flexibility in scheduling their marketing and exhibition activity for the year. 45 per cent of exhibitors have already decided to appear again in 2009.

25th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

TVS Projects 30% Growth, Hints at Future Greenfield Expansion

TVS Tyres expects to maintain a growth rate of 30 per cent in the Indian market, reports the company’s marketing general manager. Mr. M Sivasubramanian told India’s Business Standard newspaper that this projected growth has already been witnessed over the last three years, during which time the company has raised its production capacity from 600,000 to 900,000 tyres. He added that each year TVS Tyres is investing Rs 4 million (£51,800) in research and development.

Sivasubramanian also believes that the introduction of low cost cars, such as Tata’s long-awaited Nano, will not affect the two and three-wheel vehicle specialist’s sales. To the contrary, he commented, TVS project an increase in the demand for two wheeled vehicle tyres, in part due to the growing trend towards replacing tyres at shorter intervals than in previous years.

23rd January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess India to Begin Tyre Chemical Production in 2010

Specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG intends to invest 50 million euros in relocating production of rubber chemicals from Thane, in the Indian state of Maharastra to Jhagadia, in Gujarat. Production will begin in 2010 and will supply the rapidly growing Indian tyre market. Lanxess is the only western company to establish such operations in India.

Lanxess will employ about 250 people at the Jhagadia site during its first stage of expansion. The head office of Lanxess India Private Limited will, however, remain in Thane. Jhagadia will become the company’s second production site in India after Madurai in Tamil Nadu, southern India, and will be the larger of the two.

18th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

PTL Announces New Greenfield Facility

On January 15 the Board of Directors of PTL Enterprises took on record the company’s unaudited results for third quarter of 2007-8 and gave approval for a Rs 400 million (£5.2 million) green field project in Kerala. For the third quarter of the year, PTL Enterprises recorded a total income of Rs 67.1 million (£871,800) from Rs 38 million (£493,700) in the same quarter last year; an increase of nearly 77 per cent. Company net profit went up by more than 1000 per cent to Rs 23.6 million (£306,600) this quarter from Rs 2 million (£26,000) in Q3 FY 2006-07.

The Board of Directors approved a Rs 400 million investment for a greenfield facility manufacturing specialty tyres for the Indian market. The manufacturing unit will be established on land recently acquired by the company in Ernakulam, district of Kerala. The PTL facility is currently leased to Apollo Tyres.

15th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Trelleborg Investing $20 Million in Sri Lanka Expansion

Trelleborg is reported to be expanding its operations in Sri Lanka at the expense of those in the US. The Ceylon Daily News reports that the Swedish firm intends to invest US$20 million expanding its operations in this South Asian nation, with part of this expansion taking the form of relocating its entire Hartville, Ohio tyre operations there.

14th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Watts USA Appoints New GM

A new general manager has been appointed to the Watts Tyre Group’s US operations. David R. Brown, a twenty-year tyre industry veteran, will in his new role with Watts USA oversee all aspects of the company’s business operations in the US market.

Prior to his appointment David Brown was the owner and president of Southern Industrial Tire of Central Florida and Southern Industrial Tire and Wheel. Watts believes that Brown’s knowledge of the industrial tyre market, both in the retail sector and with regards to dealer networks, will be a significant asset to the company at a time when it is working towards expanding its presence and operations in the US market.

14th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors