Toyo Tires equipped vehicles have won the opening three stages of the 2013 Dakar rally. Open Country M/T-R tyres won Stages 1 – 3 thanks to Team Qatar Red Bull. This year’s Dakar rally runs 5 – 20 January and is nearly 5,000 miles in length. The route runs southward from Lima, Peru to Santiago, Chile.
Following approval by the antitrust authorities, Bosch completed its acquisition of SPX Service Solutions, a US automotive diagnostics specialist at the beginning of December 2012. The agreement to purchase the company was signed the preceding January. SPX Service Solutions develops, manufactures, and sells service equipment, repair-shop accessories, and software for the global automotive market. Based in Canton, MI (USA), SPX Service Solutions generated sales of some US$920 million (some 660 million euros) in 2011. The diagnostics specialist employs 2,800 associates in 17 countries, and has manufacturing sites in the US, Germany, France, and China. The purchase price was $1.15 billion (885 million euros).
During December GiTi Tire (UK) Ltd. launched its commercial vehicle roadside service assistance programme throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland. The so-called soft launch of the programme began on 1 December with pre-launch information released during November. Afterwards the company’s four key regional salespeople visited 98 per cent of the company’s dealer partners in the month that followed. The soft launch is now being backed up with complete nationwide implementation and a “big push” across the UK and Ireland. Tyres & Accessories met with GiTi Tire (UK) sales and marketing director Truck and Bus, Tony McHugh and marketing director Europe – Commercial Tires, Peter Foulkes to find out more.
Hankook Tire is tweaking its global management team. Soo Il Lee, who is currently president of Hankook Tire America, will as of 1 January take on the position of president and COO of Hankook’s China regional headquarters. The person he’s replacing, Byeong Jin Lee, has been appointed Soo Il Lee’s successor in the US-based position.
The Euromaster Group, the Michelin-owned fast-fit service provider present throughout much of Europe, including in the UK as ATS Euromaster, has announced its entry into the Turkish market. The company says it has taken on 230 passenger car and truck service outlets in Turkey, the 17th European market where Euromaster is active. In total, Euromaster now operates 2,250 fast fit outlets Europe-wide, 790 of which are owned by franchise partners. ATS Euromaster is responsible for more than 380 outlets in the UK, supported by a select number of network partnership agreements with independent dealers in towns where there is currently no ATS Euromaster presence.
UK new car registrations rose 11.3 per cent to 149,191 units in November, on the back of increased private demand. The UK new car market has grown 5.4 per cent to 1,921,052 units during the January-November period, putting the full year market on track to be the best since 2008.
While some say the Mayan’s predicted the apocalypse would take place this year, the good news is that Armageddon doesn’t appear to have taken place either literally or figuratively. Instead, as we look back on 2012 it is probably fair to say that the year has been dominated by labelling, tough tyre retail sell-out conditions and a resurgence in car sales and production…in the UK at least. Some might gloomily reflect on the fact that our economy as a whole encountered a double dip recession, but there are also signs that the bad times are slowing and in fact things may even pick up a bit in the year to come. (All these themes are followed up in this month’s Review of 2012 feature, which begins on page 40 in our forthcoming December issue)
A sharp decline in demand for tyres within the European Union is Bridgestone’s stated reason for cutbacks in Spain and France; travel to Hungary, however, and the picture looks entirely different. The tyre maker states it will treble production capacity of passenger car tyres at its Tatabánya plant in the coming years. One hundred per cent Bridgestone Europe-owned local subsidiary, Bridgestone Tatabánya Termelö Kft, will invest approximately 267 million euros to increase daily capacity from 6,000 tyres (as of June 2012) to 18,000 tyres. The expansion project is expected to be completed during the first half of 2017.
Representatives of Spanish trade unions Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) have organised a march today in protest of planned redundancies at Bridgestone factories in Spain. This action is just one of a number of measures planned; a two hour strike is scheduled at its Puente San Miguel plant tomorrow, and Bridgestone workers intend to protest the job cuts on 25 November.
Michelin will supply tyres to recycling and resource management company SITA UK across its fleet of 1,400 vehicles after signing Michelin’s largest ever pence-per-vehicle-per-month deal with a “stop loss” policy incorporated. The three-year deal is structured to give both companies a shared financial incentive to reduce tyre damage over the longer term, particularly when it comes to SITA UK’s operations on landfill sites and in waste collections where tyre damage is more likely to occur.
Online motoring resource Motortrades.co.uk have revealed increasing support for the UK to replicate France by introducing compulsory self-breathalyser tests, a new survey has revealed.
Earlier this year, our mainland neighbours made it compulsory for every driver to carry a minimum of two personal breathalyser kits in their cars – even if they never consume alcohol. The theory behind the move is that if a driver has consumed alcohol, they can make sure they are not over the legal limit before starting the engine. Those who are discovered not carrying the kits with them while driving face a small fine. French officials hope that the 4,000 road deaths of last year will be reduced to below 3,000 this.
Hankook launched the latest flight of its global television ad campaign "Be One with It" across Europe. Continuing from the "Sky Jumper" summer theme, the 2012 "Be One with It – Snowboarder" winter campaign will be aired on TV in October through to the end of December in the company’s key winter tyre markets Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Russia. The spots will also be shown online in various channels like social media in Sweden, UK, and France.
While many markets in Europe continue to prove challenging for Italian brake manufacturer Brembo, Germany and the USA have continued to provide the company with enough growth opportunities to keep the company's revenues ahead of those at this stage in 2011. Overall, the company registered net profit up 59.8 per cent in the first three quarters (49 million euros), with sales up 10.5 per cent (1,045 million euros). Chairman Alberto Bombassei said he remained “convinced that the ability to innovate, along with a constant focus on quality, are the foundation of company’s success, even in a crisis scenario."
Solvay has inaugurated its newly expanded Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or site in France, which produces highly dispersible silica. The investment follows a similar volume expansion last year in the US and the start-up in 2010 of a new plant in China. According to the company, these three investments required 74 million euros in total.
“Our worldwide highly dispersible silica production capacity now exceeds 400,000 tons,” commented Tom Benner, president of Solvay’s Silica Global Business Unit. “Demand for highly dispersible silica is pulled by a growing need for safer and more energy-efficient tyres and the new European tyre labelling legislation applicable from 1 November,” he added. “We can now meet our customers’ needs globally as this new legislation takes effect.”
So-called “tyre artist” Ian Cook drove across Europe recently to produce a large artwork to mark the formal introduction of the EU Tyre Label on 1 November, commissioned by tyre maker Goodyear. The British artist, who paints using tyres and radio-controlled toy cars, visited nine European countries in just four days to create the unique piece.
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