Citroën driver Sebastien Loeb has the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship in the bag after victory in the season’s final round, the Rally Great Britain. This win, the 54th in the French driver’s career, enabled Loeb to overtake Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen on the points table and finish the year one point ahead of his Finnish rival. Pirelli, as tyre supplier to the WRC, has praised the 2009 winner and his team for their victory:
Workers at the Nokian Tyres factory in the company’s Finnish hometown are scheduled to stage a one-day walkout on September 23. According to Petri Sorvali, chief shop steward at the factory, the walkout will be held in protest against the company's restructuring programme.
Nokian Tyres, Inc. has announced that its University Wholesalers subsidiary has purchased Maine Wholesale Tire, a Portland, Maine based tyre distributor. Local news sources report that one of the former owners of Maine Wholesale Tire will remain as management staff to ensure a smooth transition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The new entity will now operate under the University Wholesalers name, according to a press release.
“The operation gives us a much stronger presence in Maine and will enable us to improve levels of service to our dealers there and also in southern New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts,” said Jari Lepisto, General Manger Nokian Tyres, Inc.
Nokian Tyres, Inc. is the North American subsidiary of Nokian Tyres Plc., Finland. The company employs 135 people and services over 1500 retailers (including 12 Vianor branches) in North America.
Finland has become the 18th country to host branches belonging to the Point S tyre retail network. The Point S concept and image will now be adapted and promoted by the Full Fit Team network in Finland. The first outlets will reportedly be harmonized with the Point S colours in the coming days.
According to an official release on the news, the new branches’ business model will be the same as in every Point S country – the local structure and the members remain fully independent, sharing a common pan European signage and network policy.
Nokian Tyres will move its headquarters from LaVergne, Tennessee, to Colchester, Vermont, in an effort to consolidate its operations. The relocation, which the company expects will be finalised by spring 2010, will place the headquarters near Nokian’s wholesale operation, University Wholesalers Inc. Nokian Tyres, the North American subsidiary of Finland-based Nokian Tyres P.L.C., also owns […]
The Japanese engineered motorcycle tyre brand FullboreUSA has developed a following stateside, and its popularity is said to be gaining within the racing fraternity, an acceptance that has been reflected by increasing North American sales figures in 2008 and 2009. Here on this side of the pond the FullboreUSA brand is brand new. The range is exclusively available through Delticom’s various national websites – at present FullboreUSA products can be purchased in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Poland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and the Czech Republic.
The ETRMA reports that in May the overall European replacement tyre market declined for the 14th consecutive month. In terms of segment demand, truck tyre sales between January and May dropped 32 per cent compared with the same period last year, and the ETRMA notes that May’s 24 per cent decline “confirms the strong deterioration of tyre demand.” According to Europool figures, approximately 600,000 truck tyres were sold Europe-wide during the course of the month.
European passenger car tyre sales decreased eight per cent during the January to May period, and decreased nine per cent in May to around 12 million units. The UK market suffered a much greater drop during the month, declining 26 per cent in May.
Finland’s Cimcorp has long held the desire to develop a tyre factory in which every stage of the operation – from tyre assembly to final shipping – was automated. This idea has formed the core of the company’s so-called “dream factory” concept, and Cimcorp reports that in the past year this dream has become reality.
The company’s path towards a fully automated tyre plant began some time ago, and outside the tyre industry.
Victory in the 19th Masters of Formula 3 race, fought out over the weekend of June 13 and 14, went to Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas. But the race, which returned to its ‘ancestral home’ of Zandvoort in the Netherlands after two years at Zolder, was also a victory of sorts for Kumho Tyres: The manufacturer supplied each and every tyre utilised in the meeting – about one thousand in total – continuing a support of the series that dates back to 2002.
Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb maintained his dominance of the 2009 World Rally Championship with victory on the fourth round of the series, the Rally of Portugal, which ended in Faro on Sunday afternoon (5 April). There’s nothing new there, considering Loeb’s early season form, though the Portuguese WRC stage represented a landmark worthy of note for tyre suppliers Pirelli. The Italian giant’s Star Driver scheme – undertaken with collaboration from the FIA in order to develop new young drivers – inaugurated five new drivers, all of whom will compete at a further five events. Jarkko Nikara of Finland, Nicos Thomas from Cyprus, the Czech Republic’s Martin Semerad, Mark Tapper from New Zealand and South African Jon Williams tackled Portugal as the first stage in their WRC education.
Pirelli rally manager Mario Isola said, “We are very pleased with the way this event has gone. We had no problems with the tyres. Okay, there were some punctures caused by accidents, but otherwise the hard-compound Scorpion tyre coped very well with the conditions. This has been another very strong drive from Sebastien Loeb, but once again we saw Ford pushing Citroen hard. This was also a historic rally for Pirelli with the Star Driver Scheme. This association with the FIA to help young drivers in the sport has made us very proud as a company. All five of the drivers have performed well and we now look ahead to the rest of the season with these exciting guys.”
Dutch tyre building machinery manufacturer, VMI has been presented with the award for Innovation and Excellence in tyre manufacturing for its new MAXX Tyre Building Machine at the Tire Technology Expo in Hamburg, Germany. An international jury said the major reason for its decision was the breakthrough in fully automatic tyre building.
The MAXX is newly developed machine able to produce high quality passenger car green tyres with a bead size of 14”- 24” with increased productivity: the building process is fully hands-off, with the loading of the beads and the unloading of the green tyre done automatically. The design includes moving drums and a fixed transfer position to allow for a more precise process, flexibility and speed. Laser measuring devices and digital cameras automatically control and record the positioning of components and quality of splices.
VMI reports that the first VMI MAXX is already in production in Finland.
Pirelli Eco Technology, the Pirelli Group company operating in the field of pollution control technologies, has signed a partnership with Swedish diesel particulate filter specialist GB Environment Consulting AB in order to distribute the new Pirelli Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) systems and spare parts in the Scandinavian, Finland and the Baltic markets.
JATO Dynamics, a provider of automotive data and intelligence, reported the European new car market fell by 7.8% (1,227,941 units) during 2008, recording a steady decline since May. Though the market maintained a strong growth at the start of 2008, in May the global economic crisis began to take its toll. The picture is yet more bleak when comparing figures over the second half (July to December) of 2008 to the same period in 2007, as the market recorded a 14.5% drop.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, in December alone, the European new car market fell by 17.8 per cent (196,337 units), when compared to the same month in 2007. However, whilst this signals the market performing poorly, it is less of a reduction in sales than the previous month. Total new car sales throughout Europe during 2008 stand at 14,459,714. (Tire Review/Akron)
At midday on December 18, production personnel at Nokian’s heavy tyres factory in Nokia, Finland, walked out to protest against the company’s plans to adjust production capacity. According to an employees’ announcement, the workout will last until 10pm on Friday, December 19. Nokian adds that statutory negotiations regarding the adjustment measures are continuing and will end on Monday, December 22, 2008.
According to a previous announcement, Nokian Heavy Tyres is considering laying off some 100 employees for approximately 7-8 months as of January 2009.
According to data released by on December 16 by JATO Dynamics, the European new car market fell by 25.3 per cent (313,361 units) during November 2008, when compared to the same month last year. Total sales for the month now stand at 924,936 units, down from 1,238,297 in 2007.
This further decline in the market, which has dropped consistently over the past seven months, sees an increased year to date deficit figure in comparison to 2007. The total number of vehicles sold during the first 11 months of 2008 is 13,556,052 units – 7.1 per cent (1,030,584 units) less than during the same period last year.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
