TrelleborgAB, parent company of Trelleborg Wheel Systems, and Trelleborg Treasury AB have jointly concluded an agreement regarding an extension of the existing syndicated credit facilities that were established in 2011. The extended credit facilities total €750 million and US$625 million, have a tenor of five years and will mature in December 2018, with an option of extension thereafter for a maximum of two further years.
Since its launch earlier in 2013, the Enaikoon TMS has already been installed on vehicles at two UK quarries. At Hanson Aggregates’ Shap Beck Quarry near Penrith, a CAT775 haul truck was recently fitted with TMS external sensors and the Enaikoon TMS.
According to an article published in Italian newspaper La Repubblica today, Pirelli intends to divest its ‘Steelcord’ business and has attached a €250 million price tag to it. The publication says Pirelli is now in the final stages of negotiations with Bekaert regarding a potential sale.
Singapore-based Stamford Tyres has posted a S$4.85 million (£2.36 million) profit in the second quarter of its current financial year, a marked contrast to the $2.97 million loss reported a year earlier. Revenue for the three months to 31 October 2013 amounted to $71.5 million (£34.8 million), down 12.1 per cent year-on-year. The company says the lower revenues are mainly attributable to weaker export sales of Sumo Firenza tyres and mining tyres.
The amount Cheng Shin Rubber will invest in its new Indonesian plant appears to be much higher than previously announced. While in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange in October the Maxxis tyre brand manufacturer said it will invest NT$2.36 billion (£49.7 million) to build a plant in Indonesia in order to increase its ASEAN region presence, talk now is of investing £195 million.
German-owned fast-fit network A.T.U. reports reaching a “decisive milestone in its financial repositioning.” The loss-making company’s management and majority shareholder (private equity group KKR) have reached a lock-up agreement with more than 80 per cent of its key bond creditors to reduce A.T.U.’s debt by more than €600 million and inject some €100 million of fresh equity into the firm. In addition, A.T.U. has received a senior secured, 2018-due credit line of more than €75 million from HayFin Capital Management.
On 26 November, Toyo Tire & Rubber entered into a plea agreement with the United States Department of Justice and agreed to pay a US$120 million fine based on charges that the company violated US anti-trust laws in connection with sales of automotive anti-vibration rubber products and constant-velocity-joint boot products. The Japanese company says it decided to enter into the plea agreement “after careful consideration of the applicable laws, and the results of the findings from the investigation.”
IBM has published an angry response to the lawsuit filed by Bridgestone America’s alleging IBM’s computer system threw the tyremaker’s “entire business operation into chaos.” IBM insists that its Bridgestone’s mismanagement of the project that caused the problems, according to Business Insider International.
In response the demands of a more diversified market, the Remog group reports that it has implemented “major changes” designed to help the company adapt and take up the challenges before it.
The headline news is the incorporation of BF, which is already part of the group into Remog S.p.A’s operations. However the company made it clear that the continuity of the distribution of both lines of products branded Remog and BF will remain.
Mindshare has been appointed Apollo Tyres’ global media agency, replacing ZenithOptimedia, who serviced Apollo in India since mid-2012. The tyre maker describes its business with Mindshare as a “multi-million dollar” account and says it appointed the company following a multi-agency pitch presentation at the Apollo Tyres global marketing office in London. Apollo says Mindshare was selected due to its global reach, along with its financial and organisational fit with Apollo Tyres.
Current low prices for butadiene rubber have been singled out as a key reason why sales within Lanxess’ Performance Polymers business declined eight per cent year-on-year to €1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2013 despite a 14 per cent rise in volumes. Lanxess says lower raw material prices, especially butadiene, led to selling prices dropping 19 per cent. Sales were also hampered by negative currency effects.
The Grizz, aka Maurice Taylor, would have growled at Titan International’s designation as Zacks Investment Research’s ‘Bear of the Day’ on 13 November. Explaining why Titan was Zacks’ Ursidae of choice yesterday, Tracey Ryniec, a strategy analyst with the investment industry firm, opined that Titan International continues to suffer from a build-up in tyre inventory in the farm and construction industries and weak pricing.
Toyo Tire & Rubber’s third quarter 2013 results, published on 12 November, show a 10.5 per cent year-on-year increase in net sales for the June to September quarter, to ¥268.2 billion (£1.7 billion). Third quarter operating income, at ¥24.7 billion (£155.6 million), was up 159 per cent year-on-year and offered a 9.2 per cent margin.
As reported yesterday, Apollo Tyres’ global turnover only rose 1.7 per cent to Rs 34.3 billion in the prior quarter (£338.2 million). Yet the company’s turnover in Europe between 1 June and 30 September – the second quarter of the Apollo’s current financial year – grew substantially. Quarter turnover for Europe increased 46.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs 10.6 billion (£104.4 million); Apollo Vredestein’s quarter-on-quarter growth was 33 per cent.
During the second quarter of its financial year, the period from 1 June to 30 September, Apollo Tyres reported net sales of Rs 34.3 billion (£338.2 million), a slight increase on the same quarter a year earlier. Operating profit rose 16 per cent in the quarter to Rs 4.4 billion (£43.3 million), while net profit soared 44 per cent to Rs 2.2 billion (£21.7 million).
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