At Dunlop Nigeria’s Annual General Meeting on December 2 the company formally announced it will end local tyre production. This announcement comes half a year after production was cut back, and operating conditions within Nigeria, including an unreliable power supply, are said to be key factors behind the decision.
The labour minister in the Indian State of West Bengal has admitted there is not much the state government can do to resolve the problems between Dunlop India and union groups. This disclosure, reports the Times of India, came after the minister received a letter from company representatives explaining their decision to suspend production.
Mr. Mrinal Banerjee, the labour minister, said he would meet with union leaders on December 2. “We will talk separately with unions and the management and then plan a tripartite meeting,” he said. “But this is all we can do. For, this is not a sick company and the management is simply saying that it has failed to run the factory.”
Following October’s report that construction work on Kumho’s Georgia, US factory was being delayed due to the global economic downturn and reduced automotive industry output, media sources continue to indicate a postponement, but not a cancellation, of the factory’s completion.
News sources in the US state of Ohio have provided details of meetings between state and local officials and those at Cooper Tire regarding the status of the company’s Findlay, Ohio facility. The Toledo Blade, which comments that Cooper is Findlay’s largest company and the meeting was held “in hopes of keeping it that way”, reports that during the November 26 meeting the tyremaker was given a “strong pitch” for retaining the facility, one of four Cooper plants potentially facing closure in the US.
Dunlop India plans to suspend production at its Sahaganj facility and idle its workers on an Rs 2,000 (£30) a month retainer have run into complications, resulting in the company declaring a lockout at the plant on November 30. Workers have refused to sign an agreement accepting a suspension of production and the monthly payment, and on the morning of November 30 staged a demonstration against the company’s decision.
Workers at Goodyear Dunlop’s six plants in Germany will return from their Christmas holidays two weeks later than normal following the decision to extend the winter holidays at all the sites. Production will end on 19 December, with workers returning on 5 January, 2009.
The spokesperson for Goodyear Dunlop in Hanau, Gabriele Velte stated, “The crunch is hard on all of us – also at the Fulda factory.” Citing this example, Goodyear Dunlop’s Fulda plant, which produces the Fulda brand as well as other brands, employs 1,400 workers. In previous years, the facility has worked throughout the Christmas and New Year period – the usual holidays excepted. “This has never happened before, as long as I can remember,” continued Velte.
Bekaert is said to be gearing up to build a second steel cord manufacturing facility in Slovakia. The plant will most likely be located in the vicinity of the existing facility, in the industrial zone outside Sladkovicovo, in the country’s southwest. According to reports, the 15 million euro project will get underway in 2009.
Due to reduced demand for passenger car tyres, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire is halting production at its Wilson, North Carolina factory for a longer period over the Christmas break. Originally the plant was scheduled to operate between December 28 and 30, however the decision has been taken to remain closed between December 24 through to January 1.
Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. is conducting a voluntary recall – or to use its own words, a ‘customer satisfaction campaign’ – to replace a small number of 18-inch Toyo and Nitto brand tyres the company says “may not have been manufactured to Toyo Tires’ exacting standards’.
PK Ruia, the chairman of Dunlop India has told national media sources that the situation at the company’s Sahagunj plant, where work remains under suspension, is “under control.” The factory has been closed since Tuesday 18 November, when staff members were told to go home with an allowance on 2,000 rupees a month. The company now states that talks with banks to negotiate the necessary working capital to reopen are “at an advanced stage”, and that the factory expects to reopen in between 15 and 90 days’ time.
Officials from Toyo Tire & Rubber have said the company is postponing plans to build a new tyre factory in Asia and expand its tyre output in the US. This decision has been taken in light of lower vehicle sales and the global economic slowdown, and the company has not stated when, or if, these projects will now take place.
Pirelli has reportedly again voiced its desire to retain its operations in Carlisle. According to Cumbria Chamber of Commerce chief executive, Rob Johnston, representatives from the Italian manufacturer told him in talks during the week of November 17 to 21 that it planned to remain in the town. He added that the company’s announcement of dropping a shift at the factory and extending its Christmas period shutdown was infinitely better than the alternatives of redundancies or plant closure.
“The dropping of a shift by Pirelli is clearly bad news for those involved and will mean less money circulating in the local economy,” Johnston told the News and Star newspaper. “While this is disappointing, in the current economic circumstances it could have been a lot worse.
According to a news report broadcast by Luxembourg television station RTL, Goodyear will next week stop production at its Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg facility. The reason given for this week-long pause in production is a sharp decline in demand for truck tyres. According to the broadcaster, this stoppage is a one-off action. Since early October the manufacturer has first shut down production in the truck tyre factory on Sundays, and then also on Saturdays.
Emission control systems manufacturer Tenneco says it will continue its ‘aggressive investment’ in new emissions control application coverage in 2009. The company plans to add more than 300 SKUs to its Walker line of replacement exhaust parts in the coming year. This planned expansion continues a strategy begun more than five years ago, when Tenneco began to significantly increase the Walker brand’s coverage in support of aftermarket businesses. More than 600 new exhaust part numbers were introduced to the Walker line in 2008 alone, and more than 1,600 parts have been added since 2004.
Circulating talk of imminent redundancies at Continental Tire North America’s Mount Vernon factory are just rumours, a company official reported on November 18. While the company has reduced its temporary workforce by approximately 50 employees, the facilities 2000+ permanent employees have not been affected.
“We have been adjusting our production levels and controlling inventories to bring them in line with where the current market demands are,” Hank Eisenga, vice president for manufacturing at the plant told Illinois newspaper The Southern. “Rumours of major layoffs have been circulating, and that’s not the case. We are reducing some of our temporary workforce but we do not anticipate anything in the nature of layoffs to our permanent workforce.”
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