The Supervisory Board of Continental AG (Hanover) has appointed Martien de Louw (56) to the company’s Executive Board, with responsibility for the Passenger Tire division. Board chairman Manfred Wennemer (55) previously oversaw the division in addition to his other duties. De Louw will take up his new assignment on February 1, 2003.
Kumho will be the sole supplier to the new Formula 3 Euro Series, supplying its ECSTA Formula 3 slicks and wet weather tyres to all teams. The series comprises ten races between April and October next year and the races take place in five different countries (Germany, Italy, France, Austria and The Netherlands).
European anti-trust inspectors have launched raids on six chemicals companies suspected of fixing prices in carbon black, a product used in the tyre industry. The surprise inspections were carried out on Tuesday at premises of the six firms in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the European Commission said. The European Union’s executive arm said it was looking for “evidence of a cartel agreement and related illegal practices concerning in particular price-fixing for carbon black”. Degussa has admitted it is being investigated, in addition to Phelps Dodge and Cabot Corp whose shares fell at the news. “Entirely in line with our corporate compliance rules, we are fully cooperating with the investigation,” Degussa said in a statement. “We are confident that the investigation will prove soon that price fixing within the carbon black industry did not happen,” it added.
Deutsche Bank has sold its involvement in Continental AG of which it held 7.5 per cent share valued at 142.3 million dollars to investment groups in Germany, Great Britain, Suisse and USA. The bank also reduced its DaimlerChrysler shares from 12.85 percent (31.12.01) to 11.80 (05.11.02).
The Goodyear Eagle F1 which has been progressively rolled out around the world through 2002 is to become the first global tyre. The aim of global tyres is to produce tyre sizes for the worldwide market from single region manufacturing points. That is to say, tyres of any given size type will be manufactured in a single region and shipped globally. Currently eight North-American specific tyre sizes are manufactures in Lawton, Oklahoma, and 31 popular European sizes are manufactured in Germany. The global approach will significantly reduce manufacturing and equipment costs. The F1 is the first of many tyres that Goodyear will be offering on a global scale.
The altering demographics of the population in the next 50 years will possibly see a decrease in the demand for cars. The changes will not necessarily be in parallel because of the way in which the changes in the population will occur. The population over 60 years of age will become increasingly important as their representation as new car buyers increases from 25 per cent to 35 percent of the car buying market. The sector under 50 years of age will drop from 55 per cent to 43 per cent. This means that the manufacturers will have to re-orientate their products and their marketing according to a report by Marketing Systems GmbH (Essen/Germany).
Porsche yesterday opened a new 127 million Euros factory at Leipzig, eastern Germany, to produce the new Cayenne SUV, a vehicle developed in conjunction with VW. The new factory, next to a 4km test track and customer centre, will also produce the Carrera GT sports car from the middle of next year.
Pirelli’s new North American HQ and first US MIRS tyre factory were officially opened this weekend in Rome, Georgia. The ribbon was cut by Roy E. Barnes, Governor of Georgia and Pirelli North American President and CEO Gaetano Mannino. Various other local dignitaries attended the ceremony. The complex will employ 300 in three years time, 250 of which will be involved in production. Initially there will be three MIRS modules, but Pirelli says that this number “will substantially increase” by 2003. Pirelli also says that it expects to announce new OE contracts for MIRS tyres with more than one North American car manufacturer.
On-line tyre retailer mytyres.net has set up in Glasgow, UK, following in the footsteps of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden. The company behind mytyres.net is Hanover-based Delticom AG, which last year achieved on-line tyre sales of 21.7 million Euros. It promises next day guaranteed delivery on mainland Britain for orders placed before 12 noon and offers tyres from more than 40 manufacturers.
A report in the Financial Times based on information from the World Markets Research Centre reveals that the most efficient car factory in Europe is the Nissan plant in Sunderland, UK, with a production of 95 vehicles per employee. Equal second are Ford’s factory at Saarlouis, Germany and Toyota’s plant at Burnaston, UK, with 87 vehicles per employee. However, no European or American car factory makes it into the world’s top ten most efficient plants. Of these, the top nine are in Japan and the tenth in Korea. The world’s most efficient car factory is Mitsubishi’s plant at Mitsushima, which produces 180 vehicles per employee.
Pirelli unveiled its automatic Continuous Compound Mixing system (CCM) which complements its MIRS tyre production system and allows extremely accurate and environmentally-friendly mixing of up to 40 components. Seven patents have been applied for, with the first one granted in North America. Together, says Pirelli, CCM and MIRS will mean “a new generation of tyres, with performance unimaginable up to now.”
A motorcycle tyre produced by Pirelli’s MIRS system has received OE homologation from bike manufacturer Aprilia for its RSV 1000 model. MIRS production modules are due to be installed at the Metzeler factory in Breuberg, Germany, shortly.
Hayes Lemmerz has announced the sale of its Schenk foundry, sited at Maulbronn, Germany, to Metallwerke Kloß GmbH (MWK), for an undisclosed sum. The light metal foundry produces parts for, among others, the automobile industry and employs 300 staff. MWK has four locations in Germany, plus plants in Hungary and Spain, and employs 650 people.
Sales of new cars in Europe during May fell by 8 per cent to 1.29 million vehicles; the largest drop for fifteen months. Of the five biggest markets, only the UK showed growth, while sales in Germany declined 14 per cent, Italy down 11 per cent and France down 8.6 per cent. The German figure was influenced by strikes at a number of car plants during May. Industry experts describe the west European car market as “being in the doldrums” and some predict that it will continue to fall until next year.
After the OE-market for light alloy wheels was examined and discussed in detail in the March issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, the second part of our wheel report focuses on the situation in the international, and specially the German, replacement market situation. In the first part of the introductory article actual developments and trends in the sector are discussed. One trend, for example, is the continuing price struggle of the competitors which has – allied with a stagnating general market situation – had great influence on the wheel business as a whole and has been fought out more and more in the winter segment. One victim of this development was the company Intra/Exip, which had to announce insolvency at the beginning of this year. Furthermore an increasing interest of aftermarket companies in OE-business has to be considered. Parallel to this observation the “spring time offensive” in the aftermarket which was announced by OE-suppliers last year did not take place at all, because these companies (like e.g. Ronal and Borbet) had more than enough on their plates in order to fulfil their OE commitments. In the second part of the introductory article the aftermarket players are ranked according to their sales figures/volumes in 2001. We estimate the complete volume of the German aftermarket in 2001 at 2.65 million units. This figure includes the wheels which have been sold by companies with their own production (e.g. ATS, Artec/RH, BBS, Borbet, Dezent, Ronal, Rial) as well as by the ones without their own production to wholesalers and retailers. Furthermore the wheels that have been sold into the business by passenger car importers are counted and – last but not least – the private brands of the wholesalers themselves (Alcar with “AEZ/Enzo/Dotz”, Interpneu with “Platin” or Brüning with “ProLine”). The number of tuning-wheels sold in Germany amounts to 300,000 additional units. Last year experts predicted a mid term decrease of the market of up to minus 20 per cent over the next four years. Nowadays nobody wants to confirm this fairly negative perspective anymore. “Mid term regressive market” – this is the forecasting formula creating the greatest consensus among the market experts now. One reason for this slightly more positive prediction might be found in the extremely buoyant winter business with alloy wheels that are getting cheaper and cheaper and are accepted more and more as a serious alternative to steel wheels by the end-users. The decrease in other sectors is partly compensated by this. The consequences of the terror threats of the 11th September in New York for the light alloy wheel sector are quite difficult to predict. Should there be a large negative effect on the worldwide sales figures of new cars, this would have an effect on the international wheel suppliers also. First of all this development would hit the OEM-suppliers, with a certain slow-down too in the aftermarket. A certain uncertainty of what the future will bring is the order of the day in the alloy wheel sector. As a result of this uncertainty, some companies have slowed down or stopped their investment programmes, at least for the time being.
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.
