Cam Systems has recruited a new finance and operations manager to join the senior management team at its Gloucestershire head office. The new appointment is 39-year old Kieran Burroughs, who will replace long-serving financial director Richard Abolins, who has left the company to work closer to his home in Taunton.
(Akron/Tire Review) Strong rumours continue to persist that Pirelli SpA will strike a deal to sell a 39% share in its global tyre operations to a consortium of banks. The deal is reportedly worth 750 million euros.
(Akron/Tire Review) After weeks of review, TIA has decided to support the tyre fuel efficiency program bill (HR 5632) written by the RMA and recently passed by the House Energy Committee. In making the announcement, TIA said, “The TIA Government Affairs Committee was able to come to consensus after weighing the pros and cons of the legislation.” Separately, SEMA announced earlier this month that it would not support the bill, which calls for NHTSA to create a national tyre fuel efficiency consumer information program that would include a fuel efficiency rating system, requirements for providing such information to tire buyers, and a national consumer tire maintenance consumer education program.
(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. plans to unveil its second quarter and first half financial results before the market opens on Thursday, 3 August. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has not said when its second quarter/first half figures will be issued.
(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire has confirmed that it will close its Oklahoma, City, Oklahoma, passenger and light truck/SUV tyre plant. The plant, which opened in 1969, employs some 1,400 workers. The plant will be closed by 31 December, according to BFNAT.
Amtel-Vredestein N.V. has named Hubert A. Pandza as an independent director of the company’s supervisory board. The announcement was made at the company’s annual general meeting held in Amsterdam 26 June.
Mr Pandza is the outgoing Business Group Director of EBRD and a former executive of Deutsche Bank, Moscow. He had headed EBRD’s Russia & Central Asia Business Group and the Group for Small Business from the company’s London Headquarters since 2002. Previously, he worked for over 25 years at various posts in Deutsche Bank, including the position of CEO of Deutsche Bank, Moscow.
Banks advising Pirelli Tyre on its initial public offering withdrew the company from floatation at the last minute (30 June). The state of the Italian floatation market was blamed for the decision. Pirelli Tyre had been scheduled to make its debut on the Milan stock exchange on Wednesday 5th July, and was valued at between 1.9 and 2.3 billion euros.
A lot has happened for Slovakian tyre manufacturer, Matador, since it first exhibited under its new name back in 1994. Back then a 3×3 metre cubicle sufficed, this year Matador covered about 200 square metres of floor space in Hall 3. It is no coincidence that this is the case because about 10 years ago the Slovakian manufacturer founded its distribution subsidiary on the German market under the leadership of Dr Miroslav Rosina. Since then Germany has become one of the most important markets for Matador.
Bridgestone Corporation has revised its full-year financial projections, cutting net income predictions 35 per cent to 65 billion yen (£306 million).
The latest ATMA Indian tyre manufacturers’ monthly production figures show that passenger car tyre production in the emerging market rocketed 20 per cent. In April 1,243,559 tyres were produced as opposed to 1,037,296 in April 2005. The truck market remained flat at 977,510 units, up 0.2 per cent on last April. During the same period jeep tyre production fell 17 per cent from 115,032 units in April 2005 to 95,383 this year.
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd has reported record annual net sales of 300.2 billion yen (£1.412 billion, 2.75 billion euros), an 11.2 per cent increase on 2005. Operating income for the 2005 financial year also grew, totalling 13.094 billion yen (£61.627 million, 90.5 million euros) up 8.5 per cent year-on-year. However this total was short of the company’s target of 13.6 billion yen. During the period, Toyo’s net income fell 22.1 per cent to 5.378 billion (£25.313 million, 37.2 million euros). Toyo’s results presentation explain that the fall in its various income totals was largely impacted by the rise in raw material costs that is effecting all manufacturers.
SmarTire Systems Inc has announced that revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year 2006 increased 262 per cent to $1,195,136 from $330,406 in the third quarter of fiscal year 2005. The company said FQ3 sales represented a 42 per cent gain over the second fiscal quarter of this year. For the nine months ended 30 April 2006, SmarTire’s sales increased 157 per cent to $2,627,617 from $1,022,484 for the nine months ended April 30, 2005.
In India, Mr. A K Kinra, Chief Financial Officer of JK Tyre, has said that the company will increase tyre prices by up to eight per cent from 1st June, explaining that the step was necessary to offset growing raw material costs, notably the rising price of rubber. He said that, in Malaysia, the price of rubber has risen by 85 per cent in a year and, as rubber constitutes up to one third of the cost of raw materials, the price increase was inevitable.
Tributes have been paid from politicians and industry figures following the tragic death last Friday of Edouard Michelin, Managing Partner of the Michelin group. Mr. Michelin (42) drowned in a boating accident off the Brittany Coast during a fishing trip. He is survived by his wife and their six children. The Michelin company was founded in 1889 by Edouard Michelin’s great grandfather and Mr. Michelin joined the family firm in 1985, after training as an engineer at the Ecole Centrale de Paris. He took over as head of the company in 1999, succeeding his father Francois.
Michelin and Barrington Wind Energy Ltd. of Halifax, Nova Scotia are set to announce a contract for the supply of power, produced by wind turbines, for the tyre manufacturer’s three tyre plants in Nova Scotia. Michelin will be Barrington’s main customer for the proposed $25 million project, with eight to 10 turbines to be built on public and private land near Canso and operating in 2008.
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