Germany Archives - Page 140 of 149 - Tyrepress

Posts

Production Of MIRS Tyres In Höchst, Germany Going According To Plan

Pirelli’s German MIRS factory is now producing OE tyres for the Mini-Cooper car in size 205/45 17 Eufori@. Production is running with three lines and two others are being built, which will be producing tyres at the end of the year. Ultimately, in late 2004 or early 2005, there will be 13 lines producing 1.5 million high performance tyres a year, mainly for OE. At present, there are 50 people working in the MIRS factory and this will eventually rise to 250, including service staff. Total costs will be more than 100 million Euro and possibly as high as 120 million; Pirelli will not reveal the exact figure. MIRS makes it relatively easy for Pirelli to grow steadily in certain markets over a period of time, and this is the main advantage of the process, as it is not necessarily cheaper than the conventional production of UHP tyres. The first MIRS factory in Milan is a prototype plant, which develops and creates opportunities for new products. As well as Höchst, there is a MIRS factory at Burton-on-Trent, UK, which is not as large, and another MIRS plant at Rome, Georgia, USA is under construction. The plan to build a MIRS factory in Latin America has been abandoned, but Pirelli could build a plant in Japan, although no specific plans for a production base in Japan for OE business have been revealed.

18th March 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Dr. Paolo Masera Back In Italy

Dr. Paolo Masera (60), who was MD for Pirelli in the UK for a short time and MD for Pirelli in Germany twice; the second time for only a few months, went to Brazil early in 2001. He now is back in Italy again to take over another leading position in Milan.

15th March 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyres2Oil Development For Germany

Advanced Recycling Sciences (ARS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Natur-Energie-Wertstoffrecycling Umwelt AG (NEW, Munich) to develop ARS Tires2Oil ™ technology in Germany. The arrangement will allow NEW to build a full scale facility by the second half of next year. NEW is negotiating with ARS to acquire a 5 per cent share of the new venture at Penkun. The process treats crumb rubber in a hydrocarbon-based solvent in thermodynamic conditions to depolymerise the rubber and recover carbon black and oil. The purified output will produce crude oil with a less than 15ppm sulphur content.

1st February 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Minis For US Market On Goodyear Run-Flats

The new Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S cars, now made by BMW, are due to arrive on the US market in March. The cars will be fitted with Goodyear NCT 5 EMT run-flat tyres, manufactured in Fulda, Germany. The tyre size is 195/55 VR15.

30th January 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Insolvency At Intra

On January 16th, aluminium wheel manufacturing group Intra (Bruchsal/Germany) filed for insolvency. Elements of the group are the ILG casting facility, Intra Fleischmann + Wacker, Exip Autoparts and leasing company Intrex. The insolvency administrator has the task of saving as many of the 260 employee positions as possible and the intention to restructure the company, which is a key OE wheel supplier to Opel. Negotiations with credit institutions and suppliers are ongoing and production is being maintained.

18th January 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Hayes Lemmerz Completes Sale of its System Service Division

Hayes Lemmerz International announced the sale of its non-core System Service business to Schedl Automotive System Service Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Verwaltungs-KG, in Germany. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Hayes Lemmerz acquired the System Service business in 1997 in connection with the acquisition of Lemmerz Holding GmbH. The business has approximately 250 employees and operates five tire and wheel assembly operations, one of which is a 49% joint venture (51% Continental in Portugal). These facilities are located in Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

15th January 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Exclusive Distribution of Alliance

German wholesaler Bohnenkamp (Osnabrück) has been the exclusive distributor for the Israeli agricultural tyre manufacturer Alliance in Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic since the beginning of July. With this step Bohnenkamp intends to underline its leading position in the distribution of imported tyres. The company has been chosen by Alliance due to its elaborate distribution network and flexible logistics. Alliance offers more than 500 different sizes in the agricultural, MPT-, EM- and industrial tyres sectors and presents – in the neighbourhood of Bohnenkamp – a completely renewed product range with many new profiles and dimensions.

28th December 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Heinz-Theo Pecher To Take Over Top Position At VRG

Heinz-Theo Pecher (57), who has spent 26 years working in the tyre industry in different leading positions, is now working for VRG in Norderstedt/Hamburg. VRG is a large buying group for tyre dealers. On 1st January 2002 Pecher will take over as managing director from Klaus Heymann, who is to retire but will act as a consultant until the end of June 2002. Pecher came from Continental, where he was responsible for the German truck business replacement market (all brands). He sees excellent opportunities for VRG in a fast moving market. In the future, VRG will focus not only on Germany but also on Austria, Switzerland and Denmark, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

28th December 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

DaimlerChrysler Awards For Eight Goodyear Plants

Eight Goodyear factories have earned the DaimlerChrysler Gold Award, given in recognition of outstanding service. Seven of the plants are in North America and one is in Europe, at Philippsburg, in Germany. Goodyear was rated as “excellent” in the areas of quality, delivery, competitive pricing and technology and “acceptable” in customer support.

10th December 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Multi-Brand Sales Organisation Of The Continental Group In Germany

From the beginning of the year, only one sales rep in each region will be selling all Continental group brands. The company believes that the benefit will be greater synergies for itself and for dealers; so said Jescow von Puttkamer, head of sales for passenger car replacement tyres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in an interview with Neue Reifenzeitung. In Germany, the group has 60 sales reps on the road, selling passenger car tyres. Whether “one rep for all brands” is the correct decision or not, only time will tell. We remain pessimistic.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Health And Safety Protection At Dunlop Plants

Three of the four Dunlop plants in Germany – Hanau, Wittlich and Riesa, have been certified to the internationally recognised OHSAS 18001 standard in the fields of work safety and health protection. This expands on the plants’ existing health and safety management systems.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Engagement In Agricultural Tyres By Continental Group

Over the last 20 years, agricultural tyre business has not been very important for the Continental group, and at times, the whole segment was in question. Later they got over this with off-take-agreements, when Eastern European companies were allowed to produce tyres with the logo of the prancing horse, in order to maintain market representation. Has this all gone by now? It seems so, because since they have been producing agricultural tyres in Otrokovice’s new plant where some new machines have been installed, price and quality go together again, hence Werner Flebbe’s (55) managers in Hanover feel to be able to cope with the world-wide competition. However, Otrokovice is just a production site from where the agricultural tyre section can order, but it is an important one. Today, Continental certainly is the group’s first choice, offering the widest assortment and being distributed most efficiently. But already, the Barum brand, with its impressive variety, is being called a “volume brand”, and incidentally, in the radial tractor tyres segment, including the 75 series, it bears a remarkable resemblance to the Continental Contact. While Conti tyres are being sold throughout the whole trade, it was Flebbe’s idea to distribute Barum tyres in Germany only through some core dealers. Six big dealers (Wennekamp, Vergölst, Ihle/Günzburg, Schwarz, Semex and Brock/Weilerswist) have been given the exclusive right to promote Barum tyres, which means that they can sell to both trade and consumer. However, Hanover went a step further: The Uniroyal brand, which could have been placed very easily on the German market, has been offered exclusively. In an interview Thorsten Bublitz, responsible for marketing and sales of Conti’s agricultural tyres, assured, that by now Meyer Lissendorf has nearly all important sizes available, and it is planned to offer the complete range, with 68 sizes altogether, in September.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Results Cannot Disguise Weak Period For Continental

In the first half of 2001, the group achieved a turnover of 5,498 million Euro; 12 per cent better than for the same period last year. EBIT came down from 267 million to 158 million Euros due to the closure of plants in Herstal (Belgium) and Bad Nauheim (Germany). Without these, EBIT would have been 58 million Euro better. The truck division shows some very bad figures; turnover is down 8 per cent to 438 million Euro and instead of an EBIT of 33 million Euro (2000), the group has made a loss of 37 million Euros. The tyre situation in America is even worse – despite a slight increase (+1 per cent) in turnover to 839 million Euro, the group made a loss of 53 million Euro. A year ago, the EBIT was +20 million Euro. Continental Automotive Systems boasts an increase in turnover of 31 per cent to 1,960 million Euro, but without the acquisition of Temic, the increase would have been 18 per cent. On the other hand, the EBIT improved by only 3 million Euro to 57 million Euro. The ContiTech business was, as always, very good, but ContiTech is up for sale. The division turned over 933 million Euro and achieved an EBIT of 81 million Euro. The Continental board remains optimistic that it will achieve not only a turnover for the year as a whole of more than 11 billion Euro, but that it will also improve the previous year’s EBIT.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Borbet Group Acquires Casting Facilities From Michelin-Kronprinz

Effective May 1, 2001, the Borbet group will acquire the casting facilities for light alloy wheels from Michelin-Kronprinz in Solingen (Germany). The production of steel wheels and fabricated aluminium wheels is still owned by the Michelin group. Customers for cast aluminium wheels made by Michelin-Kronprinz – annual capacity around 1.25 million – are solely in the oe market, mainly BMW and Volkswagen, plus Audi, the PSA group and Renault.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

50 Years of Eibach

In Mid-September, the Spring-, Suspension- and Chassis-specialist celebrated its 50th anniversary in Finnentrop, with the slogan: “50 years of experience – Ready for the future.” More than 400 guests accepted the invitation for the central celebration event, approximately 50 percent of them being customers, coming from 40 countries. The terror attacks in the USA had their effect on this event too: is it possible to celebrate an anniversary thinking about thousands of victims in the States and the pain of their families? “The main impact has come from our colleagues in the United States, who wanted us to continue with the programme. We also want to give a example of multinational understanding and positive relations”, declared a visibly-moved Wilfried Eibach, head of the family owned company. The success story started in 1951 with the production of industry springs. In the Seventies the department for automotive springs was founded. Nowadays the name Eibach is known world-wide as a synonym for leading chassis technology. For some years the programme has gone far beyond the pure spring. The construction process has been supported by “CAD”-applications and it has carried out pioneer work in the field of new methods of corrosion-protection. Also the chassis system harmonisation is a huge field of activities in the year 2001. Today Eibach AG stands as a family holding on top of the German company group, consisting of four daughter companies. Abroad, Eibach is represented with production, engineering and/or distribution facilities in Irvine (California, USA), Broughton Astley (Leicestershire, GB), Tokyo (Japan) and Warriewood (New South Wales, Australia) and through more than 50 exclusive distributors. In Germany the 250 employees have achieved a turnover of 25.2 million Euro. The world-wide turnover in 2000 of the 400 employees amounted to 48 million Euro. During the celebration guests had practical experience of the secret of Eibach’s success: the fact that – beyond the many technological qualifications – the family owners have never neglected the human dimension, and they have always been aware of their social responsibilities.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors