Founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Akron, Ohio. It is one of the oldest, biggest and best-known tyremakers in the world. Goodyear makes tyres for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, racing cars, aeroplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery. Find all the news and analysis you need relating to Goodyear here.
Dunlop has that a number of its tyres are approved fitments on the new Jaguar XE. With the XE coming with range of tyre and wheel fitments depending on the trim selected, Dunlop is providing five fitments in total.
Craig Sprigmore has been appointed retail director for Goodyear Dunlop UK & Ireland and assumes responsibility for the company’s franchise and retail operations.
Goodyear Dunlop operates the UK’s only hard franchised, fast fit retail network, HiQ. The network, with 125 franchised locations and 200 plus additional fleet partners, represents one of the largest fast fit operations in the UK. It offers both tyres and SMR for consumers as well as tailored fleet management capabilities.
Global rice paddy production amounts to around 700 million tonnes each year, and some 20 per cent of this total paddy weight is made up of rice husk, which is separated in the rice milling process and has traditionally been discarded by burning (including to generate electricity) or by dumping in landfill. But in recent times new uses have been found for this former waste. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, for example, has tested silica derived from rice husk ash over the past two years. The tyre maker has now reached a supply agreement with China’s Yihai Food and Oil Industry for silica derived from rice husk ash, and will begin manufacturing a tyre containing this silica at its Pulandian factory in China this year. The tyre will be sold in the Chinese domestic market.
Two different Goodyear tyre models are being fitted as original equipment on the new Jeep Renegade. The Goodyear EfficientGrip SUV has been approved in size 215/65R16 98H, while the Vector4Seasons is supplied in sizes 215/60R17 96V LHD and 215/60R17 96V RHD.
Goodyear has named Pietro Saletta CEO of its Turkish operation. In an announcement sent to the Borsa Istanbul, Goodyear Lastikleri T.A.S. reports that Saletta will succeed Emin Yasar Ozkan in this role on 1 July following the latter’s resignation.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is to pay Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (SRI) US$271 million to end its global joint venture with the Japanese firm. Goodyear expects to increase annual income as a result of the deal, while SRI will take on expanded use of the Dunlop name around the world. This largely means Russia, Africa and Asia, but not Europe.
The reasoning behind the dissolution? According to SRI, the North American and European joint ventures did not perform as initially expected. Furthermore there was decreasing technology exchange between the two companies – all of which led both parties to “dissolve the alliance in a constructive manner”. This led to the arbitration filing and subsequent dissolution talks in January and February 2014 respectively.
Today we at Tyres & Accessories published our annual ranking of global tyre manufacturers on our tyrepress.com website. As always, this yearly survey takes the turnover of the industry’s leading players into account and also provides information on operating profit/EBIT(DA) and annual net income.
Goodyear has been awarded the Luxembourg Green Product Award for the third time in the Luxembourg Green Business Awards’ five-year history. The award was handed over to Henk van Tuyl, technology directory for commercial tyres at Goodyear Europe, Middle East and Africa, during an event held in May as part of the Luxembourg Green Business Summit.
A couple of months ago we discussed the “restructuring” of relatively large and modern Chinese manufacturer Deruibao Tire. Back then, Qingdao Doublestar was top of the list of firms connected with an acquisition/cooperation/merger rescue orchestrated by the local government. A month later government-owned ChemChina announced that it was buying Pirelli. This latter point has been covered in some depth in the pages of Tyres & Accessories, especially in our April edition. The Pirelli/ChemChina story will no-doubt garner more attention as the very complex outworkings of the deal are walked out, but what remains of interest is the way in which both the local Chinese market and the global industry are engaged in a period of both parallel and inter-connected consolidation.
Responding to reports from a number of media outlets regarding the dissolution of the 16-year old global alliance between Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) and Goodyear Tire & Rubber, SRI stated today that these are “purely speculative in nature.” The company doesn’t refute the reports’ veracity – SRI admits that “it is true that SRI and Goodyear are currently engaged in discussions concerning the possible dissolution of our alliance agreement and our joint ventures” – however it wants to make it clear that neither it nor Goodyear have issued an official announcement on the matter. Nikkei Asian Review, which published the news yesterday, says an announcement may be made “as early as this week.”
Jürgen Titz, who served as UK and Ireland director of consumer replacement tyres at Goodyear Dunlop between 2009 and 2013, has been appointed the new head of Goodyear Dunlop Tires Germany. He begins as group managing director of Goodyear Dunlop’s DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) organisation on 1 June, succeeding George Rietbergen, who held the post since 1 August 2013 and will now, according to a statement released by Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe president Darren Wells, “follow a new career outside the company.”
The Goodyear Ultra Grip Max winter truck tyre range will soon be completed with the introduction of the Ultra Grip Max T trailer tyre. The 3PMSF and M+S approved tyres will be available in sizes 385/55R22.5 and 385/65R22.5 from September 2015. The first two tyres in the Ultra Grip Max range, the S steer and D drive fitments, were recently released in sizes 315/70R22.5 and 315/80R22.5.
Chevrolet’s full line of 2016 Camaro models will roll exclusively on Goodyear Eagle tyres in USA. Chevrolet’s sixth generation Camaro has been redesigned from the ground up, and Goodyear engineers worked closely with its development team to engineer tyres to support its performance. The project, which included more than 13,000 hours of tyre development and testing, resulted in three fitments “tuned to the Camaro chassis,” according to Johann Finkelmeier, Goodyear’s vice president of North America original equipment sales.
According to Germany’s Osthessen News, Goodyear Dunlop Tires Germany GmbH intends to rescind the contract it holds with 7,500 German employees. The contract, which has been in force for 17 years and renegotiated four times during this period, guaranteed the retention of the company’s seven sites in Germany and protection from business-related redundancies. Ines Sauer, Works Council chair at Goodyear Dunlop’s Fulda facility, told Osthessen News that she and the German operation’s Central Works Council were informed of Goodyear Dunlop’s plans to end the contract late last month.
The Goodyear EfficientGrip SUV range being launched in Latin American markets this month is the first tyre from Goodyear Tire & Rubber to contain what the tyre maker describes as a “next-generation silica” – a silica developed by PPG Industries and now marketed as Agilon performance silica. Tyres containing the silica will be introduced into other regions within the next year.
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