Following the news yesterday that Ford was to increase production in Thailand, the company has announced that it will be investing $50 million to ramp up production at its factory in the Philippines. Output will rise from 15,000 vehicles to 40,000 by 2006 and employment will double to 1,250.
Ford of Europe’s restructuring plans hit a snag as workers at the company’s factory in Genk, Belgium, went on strike, picketing the plant and burning tyres to block the entrance. Last week Ford announced that 3,000 jobs were to be axed at Genk and the current industrial unrest is in response to the restructuring plan.
Goodyear has announced plans to close its factory at Huntsville, Alabama, by December 5th, affecting around 1,100 associates. The closure of Huntsville was widely expected, following the recently-ratified labour agreement with unions. Meanwhile, union representatives at the Kelly-Springfield plant in Tyler, Texas, say that tyre production has been cut by 11,000 units a day and up to 200 workers could be laid off by mid-November, hopefully only temporarily, says the union.
Michelin is set to make an initial investment of 10 million Euro in a new factory, producing steel cord for tyre reinforcement, situated in Zalau, Romania. The project is expected to take around 10 months to complete. Michelin’s annual turnover in Romania is estimated between 60 and 80 million Euro.
Ford began its much-heralded jobs reduction programme by cutting 3,000 jobs at its factory in Genk, Belgium. This is in contrast to previous plans to invest 900 million Euro in the plant. Lewis Booth, recently-appointed as Ford’s COO in Europe, was pessimistic about market conditions, saying that he expected no recovery in the European car market next year, nor the year after. Ford of Europe lost $774 million in the first six months of the year.
Indian two-wheeler tyre producer Metro Tyres predicts a 10 per cent growth in turnover this fiscal year to 3.3 billion Rupees (US$72 million) and five billion Rupees ($109.9 m) in the next three years, on the back of its technical alliance with Continental AG. Metro will also invest 200 million Rupees (44.4 m) to double production at its factory in Ludhiana to a monthly capacity of 100,000 tyres and tubes. The Indian domestic two-wheeler tyre market is estimated to be worth 10 billion Rupees ($219.5 million) annually.
Tyre technology firm Schrader Electronics has announced that it is to build a new factory at Carrickfergus in Antrim (Northern Ireland), which will create 200 jobs.
Ford is aiming to lose 1,700 jobs in Europe, by offering voluntary early retirement to workers at two factories in Germany. A similar move is expected at the Ford factory in Gent, Belgium, while workers in the UK have already been offered early retirement.
Tyre manufacturer Bridgestone Corp. released a revised earnings outlook Wednesday containing the impact of the fire at its Tochigi factory, having lowered net and pre-tax profit forecasts for the year ending Dec 31. Bridgestone now expects a group net profit of 78 billion yen against the 80 billion yen the company projected in August when it issued an earnings report for the January-June half.
Pirelli has opened its new Feira de Santana factory in Bahia, Brazil. With a primary investment that amounts to about 120 million US dollars, the plant has 32,000 square metres of constructed area. The initial daily production is of to 2,500 high performance radial tyres, which will be destined to the domestic and Latin-American markets, as well as the American and European ones. In 2005, when the factory will be at full operating capacity, approximately 7,500 tyres will be manufactured a day. On a second phase, investments of more than 80 million US dollars are already proposed, which will allow the increase of the capacity of production to 13 thousand tyres a day.
The fire-ravaged Bridgestone factory at Kuroiso City in northern Japan will resume “limited production” today, said corporation president Shigeo Watanabe at a press conference. He added that the shortfall in production would be made up by Bridgestone’s other Japanese factories.
The website of the United Steelworkers of America shows that, of the 10 Goodyear factories that have voted so far whether or not to accept the proposed new labour deal, thrashed out between the company and the union, nine have voted for acceptance. The lone dissenting voice is that of the factory at Union City, Tennessee, where 52 per cent of the workforce voted to reject the deal. In order to be ratified, the deal needs the support of the majority of the plants and of the majority of the union members.
The fire at Bridgestone’s factory in Kuroiso City, Japan, has been brought under control, with nearby residents returning home after staying overnight at public facilities. It is anticipated that the fire will disrupt supplies to car manufacturers, with 150,000 tyres out of a total stored of 250,000 having gone up in flames. Mitsubishi is reported as saying that it will seek stocks from other manufacturers from 16th September, when stocks of Bridgestone tyres are expected to run out, while Toyota says that it does not expect the fire to disrupt its operations and the company will “get tyres from other production sites”.
More than 5,000 residents have been evacuated after a major fire broke out at the Bridgestone tyre factory in Kuroiso City, 150 km north of Tokyo. The plant is located in a residential area and evacuated residents were provided with food, water and accommodation while 60 fire engines and a fire-fighting helicopter attempted – so far unsuccessfully – to bring the blaze under control. The plant covers 510,000 square meteres, employs 850 workers and makes tyres for cars, trucks and monorails. The cause of the fire is not known, but there have been no serious injuries to date. At the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Bridgestone’s shares fell by one per cent.
The long-running saga of discussions between Goodyear and the United Steel Workers of America took another turn when it was announced that the two sides had reached “a tentative agreement” on a new, three-year labour contract. The next step is for USWA’s 19,000 workers to vote to approve the deal. No details were given, but one unconfirmed press report said that the factory at Huntsville, Alabama, which produces Dunlop tyres, would close as part of the agreement, resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs.
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