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Predictions For 2050:The Car Market Is Changing

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).

12th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

New Factory For Porsche SUVs In Leipzig

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.

21st August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Official Opening Of Pirelli North American HQ And MIRS Plant

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.

19th August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

mytyres.net Sets Up In UK

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.

16th August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Japanese Car Factories The Most Efficient

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.

8th July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli Unveils Automatic Mixing System

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.”

20th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

First Homologation For MIRS Motorcycle Tyre

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.

20th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Hayes Lemmerz Sells Schenk Foundry

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.

18th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

May European Car Sales Fall

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.

13th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Alloy Wheel Report, Part 2: Replacement Market Germany 2001”Serious Situation, But By No Means Without Hope …”

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.

17th April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Marangoni’s plans for the Stunner brand

As from this spring, Marangoni Tyre is launching an effort to broaden its customer base in Germany – at the same increasing its tyre sales in general – for their second brand Stunner. New partners are being sought in the trade for the distribution of this second brand. The German market has so far not been very much exposed to Marangoni’s second brand, and the corporation hopes to introduce the tread design formerly known as ‘Zeta ESC’ to the market under the name of Stunner ‘Scudo’. The ‘Zeta Linea’, successor to the ‘Zeta ESC’, will take its place within the Marangoni product range, now that it is available in many new dimensions up to 19 inch. Further, at the Essen tyre trade show, Marangoni intends to announce that the ‘Vanto’ tyre model will take over from the ‘Heron’ model and the Italians will officially present this new tyre to the international trade press soon afterwards. The asymmetrical Vanto will be available in sizes up to 16 inch, maximum 235/55 R 16W and, according to PR and Communications Manager Mario Apolloni, its introduction will herald a ‘very special and important moment’ for Marangoni.

16th April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Quo Vadis, Continental?

The German manufacturer made a loss of more than 250 million Euro last year, due mainly to restructuring expenses. This means that the group is going to close tyre factories in Mexico as well as Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. While the European Car tyre Division remained very successful, the same cannot be said for the Truck Tyre Division and the American tyre activities are also in deep water, facing big losses. On the other hand, the group has had to pay over 200 million Euro for the remaining 40 per cent of Temic, having purchased the first 60 per cent from DaimlerChrysler earlier last year, but Continental has been unable to sell ContiTech; nobody was willing to buy that part of the group, which the management believes is worth about 1 billion Euro. What are the choices facing Continental now? Will the group not be forced to sell General Tire and the Truck Division in order to focus on passenger car tyres and ContiTeves in the automotive field?

16th April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Growing Demand For Rayon Fabric – Cordenka

Cordenka, the industrial rayon producer, has reported increased demand for rayon tyre cord products converted into dipped cord fabric. The company supplies dipped cord fabric to the individual specifications of tyre manufacturers around the world; at present around 14,000 tonnes a year and rising, from its recently-modernised plant in Obernburg, Germany.

3rd April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

VRG and Gummiwerke Fulda End Relationship

Gummiwerke Fulda has informed the third biggest cooperation in Germany, VRG, that it will terminate the contracts between the two of them. The tyre manufacturer is not satisfied with the situation, both in the past and at present, and believes that the relationship is not an equitable one, with VRG asking too much and offering too little.

22nd March 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Tire Pressure Control At CeBIT

IMST GmbH (Kamp-Lintfort/Germany) and Automotive Technology NOLEX AG (St. Motitz/Switzerland) claim its jointly developed Tire Pressure Control (TPC) system to be a highlight of its own booth at the CeBIT computer show in Hanover. According to IMST the system is the first equipment of this kind for passenger car and truck tyres with bi-directional communication. In contrast to the current systems this allows to read out directly the sensors inside the tyres, giving the opportunity to receive the actual pressure situation at a touch of a button – independently of automatic intervals. This new system is a one-antenna-only design, which can reduce the time needed for installation. Due to the special housing design with a variable docking to the valve the tyre module can – as IMST and NOLEX say – be used for every wheel form without mechanical adjustments. It is ready to operate world-wide by only small amendments. TPC also opens up the possibility to combine tyre pressure control with keyless entry with the pressure data transmitted to the remote control key when opening the car.

18th March 2002/by Tyrepress Editors