Following a delay attributed to the economic slowdown, construction work on Kumho Tire’s new factory in the US state of Georgia is tentatively set to begin before the end of 2009. If work proceeds according to this schedule, the factory should be producing tyres in 2011, slightly more than a year after originally anticipated.
In the US, Goodyear has been ordered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall 18 incorrectly labeled tyres. The offending units were manufactured in the company’s Lawton, Oklahoma factory in the second week of January 2008, and barring roadside mishaps all one and a half dozen of these Goodyear Eagle RS-A P235/55R18 99V passenger car tyres may still be plying the roads of America.
The lockout at PTL Enterprises Ltd in India appears to have reached a stalemate, with both parties sticking to their respective positions without compromise. According to an official at Apollo Tyres, the employees’ unions demand that the lockout end as a pre-condition to enter into further negotiations, while management at the Apollo Tyres supplier say the company will end the lockout only after the issues are discussed and settled.
The light has yet to appear at the end of the economic downturn tunnel, and in response to market conditions Michelin in the UK is taking steps to cut costs. Measures being introduced include a pause in production of its Encore brand truck tyres between April 11 and 20, and a delay in the annual salary increases of about 600 salaried employees. Increases due in May will not take place until September.
While the 240 Michelin North America employees temporarily laid off from the company’s Ardmore, Oklahoma factory have returned to their jobs, a further 110 workers, employed by a manufacturing outsourcing company, will not be returning to the Michelin factory any time soon.
Proposed initiatives to tackle the effects of the economic situation have been well received by union representatives. On January 16 the company announced that discussions with employees and the union Unite have led to a number of measures being put forward in an attempt to avoid redundancies at the company’s Baldovie factory in Dundee. Michelin has proposed temporary plant closures in which employees would be asked to take 56 hours off on full pay, with the proviso they work back the time in 2010, or else take the time off on two-thirds pay without the obligation to work it back.
Following a 15-day production halt in December Birla Tyres is planning another temporary closure of its factory in Orissa, India, again in response to weakening sales of the company’s tyres. A senior member of staff at the factory, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Indo-Asian News Service that Birla “will shut down the plant from January 19 to January 31 because of falling demand.” He added that employees have already been notified of the decision.
US based aluminium wheel manufacturer Superior Industries International intends to close its factory in Van Nuys, California. In a statement published January 13, the company said the closure is taking place “in an effort to further reduce costs and more closely align its capacity with sharply lower demand for light vehicles.” Superior Industries added that its remaining five North American facilities and its Hungarian joint venture operation contain sufficient capacity to accommodate current and expected production requirements.
Bridgestone Australia is not allowing itself to be drawn into speculation over the future of its factory in Salisbury, South Australia, and instead has expressed its optimism about 2009. Following news published by Australia based business information analyst IBIS World that tyre manufacturing is an industry in which job losses are most likely this year, Bridgestone’s public relations company Michels Warren said the tyre maker “did not want to add any weight to the story”, and released a statement saying the company remained positive about this coming year.
After five weeks of lock out conditions at the factory under lease to Apollo Tyres, plant management and union representatives appear to have made little or no progress in resolving their differences. A January 7 meeting conveyed by the labour minister of India’s Kerala state, PK Gurudasan, broke down when the two parties could not reach a consensus on the list of 12 items management views as essential for the factory’s ongoing viability. Union representatives agreed to consider just three, and said the remaining proposals would be discussed only after the lockout was lifted.
The shorter working week implemented at Goodyear’s truck tyre factory in Luxembourg is being extended beyond the time originally specified. Between February and April production will only take place four days a week, commented a company spokesman.
Kentucky, US based newspaper The State Journal reports that Topy America has laid of 45 hourly employees from its Franklin County steel wheel production facility. These redundancies represent approximately 16 per cent of the subsidiary’s Kentucky factory workforce. The company’s other US operations have not been affected.
According to plant director Tom Trzazkus, the layoffs were necessary “due to the current economic conditions and the slowing of sales within the automotive industry.” In addition to the redundancies, a raft of other changes were made “to ensure the continuation of this business in the short term,” a press release sent to the newspaper by Trzazkus said.
An unsourced report published in Brazil’s O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper indicates that Michelin has plans to build a fourth factory in Rio de Janeiro State. The US$200 million plant, says the newspaper, will be built in Itataia, in the south of the state, where another Michelin facility is already in operation. The company also operates factories in Resende and Campo Grande.
Romanian news sources have reported today that the country’s Financiarul has announced that Pirelli will open its new diesel engine filter manufacturing facility in the southern county of Gorj in March. The financial organisation stated on its website that Gorj County Council chairman Ion Calinoiu met SC Pirelli alongside Ambiente Eco Technology director Paolo Benea to tackle common issues related to the official opening of the factory within the Bumbesti-Jiu Industrial Park. The website quotes Benea announcing that the factory will be opened at the end of March.
Back in October 2006, Tyrepress.com reported that Pirelli Romania head, Guglielmo Fiocchi, said that, “Next year we could start the construction of a new plant for production of filters for diesel engines in Gorj.”
According to The Cumberland News, workers at Pirelli’s Carlisle plant will find out on January 9 whether they are able to return to work following the equipment failure that has delayed operations following the factory’s planned Christmas shutdown period. Although workers were scheduled to return on January 8, plant management informed them that the factory had not yet returned to a fully operational state.
“’During the start-up process after the shutdown period, leaks in the high pressure steam system were detected,” Pirelli said in a statement. “These require immediate repair, therefore there will be a delay in the timing of the start-up of the Carlisle factory planned for January 8.”
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