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Sri Lankan Govt Tyre Factory Reaches End of Line

The bicycle tyre manufacturing facility in the Sri Lankan town of Mawanella operated by the Sri Lanka Rubber Manufacturing and Export Corporation, a body owned and controlled by the nation’s Ministry of Plantation Industries, has ended production and remains closed. Local media reports indicate that plant machinery is in a state of decline and the factory buildings have become ‘dilapidated.’

The plant was established in 1974 under a United Nations Development programme at a cost of £17 million. However the machinery in use was said to be sub-standard, resulting in the poor performance of the company’s tyres in the marketplace.

23rd July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Delphi to Build New Romanian Plant

On July 19, the same day that Pirelli announced its planned investment of around £17 million to set up a factory for the production of diesel engine filters, auto parts manufacturer Delphi gave details of plans to invest some £67 million over the next five years in a new factory in Romania. This facility. According to Romania’s national press agency Rompres, will produce injectors and other components for diesel engines.

The facility will be located in the northeast city of Iasi, close to the country’s border with Moldova. It is anticipated that more than a thousand workers will be employed there. The word from Delphi headquarters in Troy, Michigan is that the new plant is required in order to keep pace with rising demand.

23rd July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Damaged Riken Factory Not a Tyre Plant

The Riken factory in Japan knocked out of production by the July 16 earthquake is not, despite the name, in any way affiliated with tyres produced by the Michelin Group. The automotive parts plant, owned by the Riken Corporation and located in the Kashiwazaki region of Japan, suffered minor damage and a number of employees were injured. Due to the severance gas and water supplies and the necessity to check plant equipment, supply of auto parts to a number of major Japanese carmakers including Toyota, Mitsubishi and Suzuki has been severed, causing disruptions to their production schedule.

Part of Michelin’s Riken tyre line, sold in the UK through Kwik-Fit, is produced in Japan, however production at Michelin’s Japanese facilities was not affected by the earthquake. Riken tyres are also produced in Romania by Michelin Silvania.

20th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

TiWheel Directors Quit, Factory Remains Shut

Bidvest’s Alan Salomon tendered his resignation from the board of Tiger Wheel Limited on July 18, one day after the resignation of Brian Joffe was received. According to Tiger Wheel founder and chairman Eddie Keizan, the two men alternated as directors with each other, so once the first resignation was given it was logical that the second was imminent. Salomon’s was given a day later as he was travelling overseas.

The company’s factory in Babelegi, about 40km from Pretoria, has been closed and is not permitted to recommence operations until given the all clear by the liquidators. In the meantime, according to Keizan, customers have been left “shouting for wheels.”

20th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

By Royal Appointment

It has been reported that the woman who may – or may not – one day be queen can boast of an ancestor employed in the most noble of industries. According to reports printed in various UK publications, genealogist Robert Barrett has uncovered that some of Camilla Parker Bowles’ antecedents were working class folk from Essex, including her great grandfather. “He’d been working on a factory assembly line,” said Barrett. “On his death certificate it states his job as ‘rubber tyre maker’.”

18th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli Workers At Carlisle Vote To Strike

A report in the local paper the News and Star says that 700 workers at Pirelli’s factory in Carlisle have voted to strike on three days in August, after the company said that it was going to outsource five jobs to outside workers. This will be only the second strike at the factory since it opened in 1969 and the three days chosen are August 3, 4 and 17.

700 workers represent 70 per cent of the workforce and Pirelli has to decide whether it will be worthwhile opening the factory with so many absent. Complete closure would mean a loss of production of around 10,000 tyres a day.

16th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Maha Reports ‘Surge’ In Demand for New MOT/ATL Test Equipment

New Maha MOT/ATL test equipment is proving to be popular with workshops, according to company representatives. And the increased demand for the MOT/ATL test equipment from Maha has reportedly resulted in an extra shift at the factory in Germany to satisfy the demand for the new products throughout Europe. The demand has also had a negative effect on normal delivery times, but Maha reassures customers that this will be back to normal soon. Gus Gregory, managing director from Maha said:, “The demand for the products is proving to be beyond all expectations which is a testament to the quality of Maha’s products.”

11th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Still Interested in Chinese Production

While no official word has been given, Continental reportedly retains very strong intentions of setting up its first tyre manufacturing facility in China. Klaus Kreipe, head of the tyremaker’s China operations, told the Reuters news agency on July 10 that “we are more than just seriously considering to start local production.”

This is not the first time such reports have come from the German tyremaker – in March 2006 Tyres & Accessories printed news that Conti CFO Alan Hippe was still weighing up its options regarding production in China and in August we reported that the company was looking at two potential locations for a greenfield factory project. Mr. Kreipe’s latest comments did not include a timetable of when any production projects would be established.

11th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Kazakhstan Tyre Factory – Update

Reports indicate that the $200 million tyre plant Kazakhstan’s Ordabasy corporation is building in the national capital Astana will be engaged in the manufacture of Nokian tyres. However, as of July 6 staff at Nokian have been unable to confirm this information. The factory will produce 4 million tyres a year when in full production and employ 250 people.

6th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Foundations laid for new Kazakhstan Tyre Factory

Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev has placed time capsules in the foundations of a new tyre plant and two other new projects being initiated in the Astana Industrial Park. The facility is being built by Ordabasy Corporation, and reports indicate it will be engaged in the manufacture of Nokian tyres. The factory will produce 4 million tyres a year when in full production.

Astana, which in the Kazakh language literally means “capital city” is – no surprises here – the capital of Kazakhstan. Astana is also part of a ‘Special Economic Zone’ established in June 2001 to provide more favourable tariff conditions for companies and investors.

4th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Birla Tyre Planning Greenfield Project

B K Birla Group chairman Basant Kumar Birla has announced plans for an £85 million greenfield tyre factory in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The plant, to be built near the city of Haridwar, where the company has already acquired a 42 hectare site, will have a production capacity of 1.7 million passenger car tyres per year. The plant is anticipated to be ready within the next two years and is to be funded through internal accruals and loans.

Birla Tyres entered the Indian market in 1991 and today is India’s fifth largest tyremaker, with production facilities in the eastern state of Orissa. The plant in Balasore, Orissa was set up with technical assistance from Pirelli UK, and has an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tyres, including passenger car and light commercial radials as well as bias car, truck and agricultural tyres. Birla Tyres states that its products are exported to 43 countries.

4th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Kumho’s Vietnam Latex Facility Ready for Production

Preparations to ready Kumho Tire’s US$4 million latex processing facility in Vietnam have reached their conclusion and on June 28 the new plant began operations. The facility, located towards the south of the country in Binh Dong province, has an annual capacity of processing 11,000 tons of natural rubber latex, which will be sourced from within the province. Plant output will supply the tyremaker’s $380 million tyre factory now under construction nearby.

When the new tyre factory enters production early in 2008 it will have a capacity of more than 3 million radials per annum, and these tyres will both be sold on the domestic market and exported to North American, European and ASEAN markets.

29th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Beru TSS a Factory Option for Audi R8

Audi’s R8 has become the latest in a string of performance vehicles to offer drivers and passengers the added safety of Beru’s Tire Safety System (TSS). The recently launched sports car comes fitted with a 420HP engine capable of propelling the vehicle to speeds in excess of 180 mph, and the optionally fitted TSS provides the added safety of direct monitoring that constantly checks tyre pressure whilst the vehicle is moving and pre-warning the driver of damage through insufficient tyre pressure or through gradual or sudden loss of pressure.

In order to ensure the proper functioning of the TSS system in many different driving situations, the components are tested on a high-speed racetrack. In addition to the enormously high centrifugal forces on the TSS sensors, signal transmission between the TSS tyre electronics, antenna and control unit must meet the highest demands.

27th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Expansion Planned For Nokian Tyres’ St. Petersburg Factory

Nokian Tyres plc and Lemcon Oy, which is part of the Lemminkäinen Group, have signed a contract agreement on the expansion of Nokian Tyres’ plant in St. Petersburg. The contract was signed in Vsevolozhsk on 21 June.

Expansion will begin immediately and will be completed in March 2008. In total, the expansion will comprise approximately 33,000 square metres. Potential production capacity can be increased from the current four million tyres per year up to around 10 million tyres per year. Two new production cells will be installed in the new production premises in 2008 and these will increase the annual production volume to six million tyres. The maximum annual capacity of 10 million tyres will be achieved in 2011. Production machinery will be new and as automated as possible and the increased capacity will call for future investments in an expansion of the mixing plant and machine lines.

26th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Amtel-Vredestein Adds Petr Zolotarev to Executive Board

Amtel-Vredestein N.V. had confirmed that it has nominated Russian Machines CEO and Gaz Group Chairman Petr Zolotarev to its Executive Board. Acting Vice-President at Yukos Refining and Marketing, Vadim Pesochinsky, was also nominated to the Executive Board. Both appointments are to be effective July 1st, once they are approved at the company’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) scheduled for 30 June in Amsterdam.

Zolotarev is expected to succeed Alexei Gurin as head of the Company. Gurin, who joined the Company in 2001 and rose to the post of CEO in 2004, plans to leave the Group to pursue new opportunities as soon as the terms of his resignation are concluded — which is expected to be at the time of the Company’s AGM.

19th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors