Gaetano Mannino, president of Pirelli Tire North America (PTNA), was one of the participants in a panel discussion on “Views from Italian and US Business Leaders” at Emory University earlier this week. Also on the panel was Ted Turner, CNN Founder and philanthropist, David Abney, president of UPS International, and Giancarlo Fantappie, president and CEO of Ansaldobreda, Inc.
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Following a growing representation within franchised dealer networks, Group Tyre (UK) Ltd has announced plans to restructure its Car Dealership Department to further strengthen its operation. The appointments of James Marriott and John Welsh are seen as key elements of the restructure, which provide dedicated regional Training and Sales Development roles across the UK, including Northern Ireland.
During testing for the Sepang MotoGP test, world champion Valentino Rossi has been spotted with a special 16-inch rear Michelin tyre, as opposed to the usual 16.5 inch tyre that can be found on his factory M1. “We worked very well with Michelin and with one or two new tyres that they brought we made some good improvements to the vibration (chatter),” Rossi told crash.net, without making any specific mention of a different tyre size.
Corporate problem solver, David James is reportedly in advanced talks to buy the MG Rover brand from Nanjing Automobile. A move that, according to The Times, could “sound the death knell for the Longbridge plant.” James is said to be planning to use the MG Rover brand on Smart Roadster cars. Until now these cars have been produced by Mercedes in Coventry. James is believed to have agreed to buy the design, technology and equipment of Mercedes’ Smart Roadster car for about 20 million euros and old Dunlop tyre factory in Coventry for about 10 million euros.
Tomahawk, the UK manufacturer of retread radial motorcycle tyres, has launched a new pattern tyre for the 2006 season. The company’s new T3 tyre is said to be sport biased “with a large contact patch that puts more rubber on the road.” The tyre offers Z-rated performance in a choice of three compounds; Road, for every day use and good rates of wear; Sport, for spirited riding on road or track; and Sprint, for track day use.
Dunlop has announced that the Tech 3 Yamaha team will compete in the 2006 MotoGP World Championship on Dunlop tyres.
Riders will be Spaniard Carlos Checa, the most experienced rider on the MotoGP grid with ten years of top level experience of riding for different factory teams and on different tyre brands and the young British rider James Ellison. Both will be on board the latest official 2006 factory Yamaha YZR- M1 machines run by the very experienced Tech 3 team.
Varta is re-launching its range of premium quality 12V motorcycle batteries to increase coverage of the high performance sector, including machines such as the Yamaha R6 and Suzuki GSX 1300R.
Tecalemit Garage Equipment continues to increase its range of MOT & ATL Brake testers. The latest additions to the range are the split bed Class IV MOT brake testers DE 9425 and DE 9426 and Class IV ATL brake testers DE 9425/WT and DE 9426/WT with axle weighing facility.
“We have developed these new machines as a direct response to enquiries from existing Tecalemit customers,” said James Devonport Tecalemit managing director, “We have thousands of brake testers in service around the country many of them approaching the end of their design life, in fact a significant number over 30 years old. The DE 9425 is designed as a direct replacement for our early Kismet KBT 1300 and later DE 7200 models. If the original civil works are done correctly then the new models drop straight into the existing foundation work.”
A new tyre recycling factory could be soon opened in the so-called scrapyard area of Bahrain. An investor has applied for permission to rent premises in the area for the project, said Southern Municipality acting director-general Asem Abdullatif. The investor has reportedly received all the necessary environmental permissions already. “The municipality is planning to give him the go ahead after (the Islamic festival) Eid to start his project,” said Abdullatif, the municipality’s technical director. Abdullatif said that the municipality would work hard to raise awareness about the importance of getting rid of tyres without burning them. The factory will be built on a two-year, renewable lease, TradeArabia reported.
There is still a possibility that Continental AG can make an amicable agreement with the German works council over job-cuts at its Hanover-Stoecken tyre factory, the AFX news agency has reported. Workers at the Stoecken plant are expected to meet management today. At the same time Continental employees across Germany have been asked to protest against the planned 320 job cuts – around 10 per cent of the work force. The cuts, which are planned to take place by the end of 2006, were announced in November due to lower-than-expected growth in car tyre sales.
Cabot Corporation’s enormous $60 million Tianjin, China carbon black factory is set to go online in March 2006, according to a report by Tianjin Daily.
As tradition dictates, the 2006 season is about to begin with the Monte Carlo Rally. As one of the most demanding and unpredictable events in the championship, the rally will see Pirelli aiming for a significant result in partnership with the works Subaru team.
The Impreza WRCs will be competing on Pirelli P Zero tyres once again this year and will be able to depend on a comprehensive and targeted development program with tyres matched to the specific conditions of each rally. Besides the factory Subarus of Solberg-Mills and Sarrazin-Prevot and the Impreza of the Subaru Rally Team Australia, to be driven by Atkinson-McNeal, the Pirelli technicians will also supply tyres and service to private and semi-private entrants.
Dunlop has been appointed as the sole supplier of bespoke tyres for the 19 and 20-inch fitments of the new Jaguar XK Coupe and Convertible. According to the company, the Dunlop and Jaguar partnership embraces many of the iconic successes in the history of both brands. Six Le Mans victories were shared between the two companies, with the success story spanning the 1951 Jaguar XK120C through the legendary D-Type era to the Jaguar XJR-9LM that won in 1988.
Amtel-Povolzhye Tire Complex, Russia’s second largest tyre factory increased output by 35 per cent to 6,543,000 tyres in 2005 – less than the 44 per cent increase expected by analysts. According to Russian investment bank, Centre Invest, production at the factory was expected to increase to 7,000,000 tyres. “Although our expectations proved overly optimistic, we maintain our recommendation and fair price for the company, as its growth far outperformed expected growth rates for other Russian tyre manufacturers,” the analyst’s report commented.
Bulgarian company Ecoprocess (Dobrich) has completed the construction of a tyre recycling factory. The plant uses a technique called vacuum pyrolysis to incinerate tyres and break them down into carbon, pyrolysis oil and gas.
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