Comments given by Pirelli & C Spa chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera indicate that targets for company’s tyre business remain slightly higher despite declining car sales in Western Europe. Speaking to reporters on June 30, Mr. Tronchetti Provera said Pirelli is “working on growing where there is a sustained demand, to improve the profit mix and to reduce costs. Therefore we believe we can meet our targets.”
Shandong Triangle Tire Co. Ltd is to hold an initial public share offering, marking the final step in its move away from Chinese government (specifically the government of Weihai, Shandong province) ownership. This could potentially result in new funds to hire staff and build the Triangle brand. However, it also means ending its state-owned ties with Weihai town hall, and therefore the benefits that came with that.
Triangle holds roughly 1 per cent global market share, but it also has five serious domestic competitors, 20 medium-sized rivals and another 300 or so small ones. Despite this, Triangle’s passenger car tyre sales are said to be growing by more than 20 per cent a year, compared with a global market average of 6 per cent annually. In addition, Triangle’s construction, farming and mining vehicle division is reportedly doubling production this year.
Russian media has reported that Amtel-Vredestein shareholders will receive no 2007 dividend from the Amtel Chernozemye tyre factory in Voronezh, Russia, following a decision made at the facility’s annual meeting on June 9. The 2007 profit will instead be retained.
A second tyre making facility at the site – Voronezh-2 – is scheduled to enter series production in the near future, and will have a capacity of 2.5 million tyres per annum. The Voronezh-2 plant will bring the number of facilities operated by the company to four; factories also operate in Kirov (Amtel Povolzhye) and the Enschede, the Netherlands (Vredestein).
The days of an iconic Wolverhampton landmark are drawing to a close. Preparation work has already begun for the demolition of the Goodyear chimney that for decades towered over a once bustling tyre manufacturing plant, and by late June or early July the imposing 150 foot high blue and yellow brick structure will exist only as a memory.
At its peak the Goodyear facility in Wolverhampton employed 7,000 people, but today this number has shrunk to 450, the remaining workers engaged in the production of retreads and compounds for use in other European Goodyear factories. The bulk of the factory site will be redeveloped into a residential area with 700 houses, shops, a park and a school. The first houses will be built in 2010.
Alliance Tire, the Israel based company purchased in July 2007 by former BKT CEO Yogesh Mahansaria and global private equity company Warburg Pincus, has plans to construct a £50 million greenfield facility in India. The factory will focus on the production of agricultural and smaller size OTR tyres, and is tipped to double the company’s total production capacity. Manufacture at the plant is anticipated to commence in the first quarter of 2009.
Omagh-based Donnell & Ellis Heavy Haulage have signed a contract to make ATS Euromaster the company’s sole tyre service provider.
The contract, said to be worth close to £100,000 per year, is aimed at providing the company with proactive tyre management as a measure against unexpected vehicle downtime. In addition, the agreement sees a fleet-wide change of preferred brand; ATSE are fitting Michelin tyres on its 30 Scania tractor units, and Hankook tyres on 60 specialist trailers, some of which have a payload capacity of up to 200 tonnes.
The local council of Gyöngyös in North-Eastern Hungary has been holding discussions with Apollo Tyres to establish a factory in the region. The go-ahead would depend on Apollo Tyres acquiring all of the necessary permits for the plant’s construction, said mayor Attila Végh said on May 13.
According to Hungary’s BBJ business weekly, the factory’s planned construction has met with opposition from locals who believe it will endanger the region’s winegrowers and fruit farmers.
On May 12 Hayes Lemmerz International announced the planned closure of its aluminium wheel manufacturing facility in Gainesville, Georgia (USA) by the end of this year. The company has taken the decision to close the factory due to global overcapacity in the light vehicle aluminium wheel market and the increasing level of aluminium wheel imports coming into North America from countries with lower production costs. The company says the closure announcement reflects its overall strategy to continue to focus its business on the “right products in the right geographic regions”.
The Gainesville facility, which has been producing wheels since July 1994, employs approximately 290 people. Employees were advised of the closure during a meeting at the facility. A portion of the production currently at Gainesville will be moved to the Hayes Lemmerz aluminium wheel facility in Mexico.
India’s Business Standard newspaper has reported on plans for Kesoram Industries to invest Rs 8.4 billion (£103.4 million) expanding its Birla Tyre factory in the northern state of Uttarakhand. Plans for the facility include a radial tyre plant with a 100 ton per day capacity, to be built with a capital outlay of Rs 4.95 billion (£60.9 million) and a 125 ton per day capacity truck and agricultural vehicle bias tyre factory, to be built with an investment of Rs 3.45 billion (£42.5 million). The expansion has an anticipated completion date of December 2009.
Two factory-supported teams competing in the 2008 Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship have chosen Maxxis tyres. Relentless Suzuki MX and Twisted7.com/Moto/Animal are among 17 teams competing in the eight-round championship, which runs from March to September. Maxxis has signed up as title sponsor of what is widely acknowledged as the UK’s premier off-road motorcycle series until 2010.
Based in Rugeley, Staffordshire, the Relentless Suzuki MX team was set up by ex-rider Rob Hooper, who became a team manager in 1987 and has been running his own motocross outfit since 1991. Team rider Jamie Law, 21, is contesting the MX1 series on a Suzuki RM-Z450, while Scott Probert, 21, and Lewis Gregory, 22, are both using Suzuki RM-Z 250cc machines in the MX2 class.
Michelin North America’s BFGoodrich brand is the presenting sponsor and official tyre of the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup.
The seven-race professional kicked off this past weekend at Road Atlanta, with all factory-built Ford Mustang FR500S race cars competing on BFGoodrich g-Force R1 tyres.
“BFG’s involvement in the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup goes beyond just our sponsorship involvement,” said Doug Brown, brand category manager for BFGoodrich brand. “BFGoodrich Tires wants to provide yet another avenue to recognise the efforts put forth by the drivers because we know they can count on the g-Force R1 tyre lap after lap and we want the competitors to be recognised for their racing ability as well.” (Tire Review/Akron)
Fieldens (Wheels Tyres & ATVs) ltd has joined forces with Turkey’s largest specialist wheel manufacturer, Jantsa, in hosting a stand at this year’s NEC Commercial Vehicle Show. According to Fieldens, demand for specialist tyres and wheels for commercial vehicles, civil engineering plant and equipment has grown significantly in recent years. Fieldens aims to serve this market by building “a first class reputation as a company that can supply those awkward sized tyres, tread patterns and brands right across civil engineering, quarrying, amenity and agricultural industries.
China based manufacturer and distributor of radial tyre cord and bead wire, Xingda International Holdings Ltd., has announced the expansion of its high performance tyre cord by 40,000 to 50,000 tons per year in each of the next three years. This capacity increase will take place at the company’s “Factory No. 8” facility.
At the end of 2007 the company’s radial cord capacity stood at 237,100 tons, a 22.2 per cent increase over 2006, the company reported in its annual statement. The utilisation rate of this tyre cord was 84 per cent, only marginally lower than the year before. The Jiangsu Province based firm aims to reach a total radial tyre cord production capacity of approximately 400,000 tons by 2011. The company quotes the China Rubber Industry Association as saying demand within China for radial cord will exceed 800,000 tons in 2008, an increase of over 25 per cent on 2007.
Workers have been on strike at Kiyan Tire Factory, Iran, since Thursday 10 April. As workers ended their third day of strike, on Saturday 12 April, they burned tyres on highway between Tehran and Islamshahr. According to anti-government news reports, striking workers have not been paid “in the last few months” and some since last autumn.
JK Tyres president Arun Bajoria has predicted that radialisation is the “next big thing” in the Indian tyre market. His comments came alongside an announcement that the company will almost double the Indian manufacturer’s PCR capacity thorough the construction of a Greenfield passenger car radial tyre factory. “We are falling short of capacity and we are planning a new plant,” Arun Bajoria, president, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd told the Hindu Business Line. Bajoria told the newspaper that JK Tyre is scouting out possible locations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and some States in the north of India.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
