Just over a year after Michelin North America announced it would invest $92 million setting up production facilities for its X One wide single tyre in Canada, employees at the Waterville, Nova Scotia plant have produced the factory’s first X One tyre ahead of schedule.
Gloucestershire based Watts Industrial Polymers is a leading producer of tyre and retread compounds and related materials both at home in the UK and in numerous export markets. From their manufacturing facilities in Lydney, where the company’s headquarters is also located, Watts supplies polymer compounds in strip, slab and camelback form as well as sidewall veneers and ancillary materials.
(Akron/Tire Review) Jim Morton, the former Michelin North America public relations and government affairs chief who later became vice chairman of Nissan North America, has decided to retire at the end of March. Morton will continue as a government affairs advisor to Nissan management after his Apr. 1 departure.
Key retailers attending a regional meeting of the NTDA earlier this month agreed to set up a new tyre safety group for the province under the guidance of retiring NTDA regional chairman Roy Nutt who will be driving forward proposals for a major tyre safety initiative in the province later this year. Entitled the Northern Ireland Tyre Safety Association (NITSA) the group will be formally created at a special open meeting to be held next month in Templepatrick where proposals a for a tyre safety week will be discussed.
Sibur-Russian Tyres has instigated the formation of a subcommittee, subordinate to the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s committee on entrepreneurship in the automotive industry, to focus upon the development of Russia’s tyre and rubber industry. The aim of this subcommittee is to facilitate the consolidation of Russian tyremakers in order to protect their interests at the governmental level.
CEAT Ltd. has wrested the rights to become the official OE Supplier for Global Automobiles PVT Ltd. In keeping with the requirements of the Indian Market, Global Automobiles PVT Ltd plans to enter the market with three variants of their two-wheeler product, that is, 100cc, 125cc, 150cc motorcycles.
A joint venture to set up this two-wheeler project at Chinsura in Hooghly district was signed between the city-based Global Automobiles Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Xenitis Group and Guangzhou Motors Company of China in November 2005.
Deputies from the people’s congress in the Chinese city of Guangzhou have asked officials from the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau why no action has been taken to deal with the large amount of pollution caused by a state-owned tyremaker located in the city. South China Tire & Rubber, one of the country’s largest tyre suppliers, reportedly emits large quantities of sulphurous gas from its factory, and this is claimed to affect the health of an estimated 100,000 people.
As the World Economic Forum got underway in the Swiss resort town of Davos, Swiss globalisation opponents held their own ‘Public Eye’ awards, in which companies they have identified as being environmentally or socially irresponsible were given an “award” in recognition. This year tyremaker Bridgestone was the recipient of one such award.
Michelin has given more details of their decision to quit tyre production in Nigeria. At a press briefing the Corporate Affairs manager for Michelin Nigeria Limited, Ojo-Osagie, passed on details of the factors contributing to the decision and the measures the company plans to undertake in the coming months.
North Yorkshire company Riverside Waste Machinery, a major national player in the provision of equipment to tackle industrial waste in an environmentally friendly manner, recently supplied a second tyre shredder to Ling Industrial Services, the Kent-based specialists in demolition and waste management which helps dispose of a “good proportion” of the 40-million waste tyres generated each year across the UK.
Michelin has announced that it is ceasing tyre production at its factory in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The tyremaker informed the Nigerian government of its decision on January 16 and, according to Michelin, both parties have agreed to work together to find a buyer.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has agreed to pay out US$925,000 in compensation to women who were denied employment as tyre makers at the company’s factory in Virginia. Details of this payment were made by the US Labor Department on January 16, after an administrative law judge approved a consent decree to resolve a lawsuit filed by approximately 800 women denied jobs at the Danville, Virginia plant in the late 1990s.
(Akron/Tire Review) CBC has reported that union workers at Goodyear’s Valleyfield, Quebec, tire plant and government officials are working on a plan to maintain tire production at the plant. Earlier this month, Goodyear announced it would cease tire production there, converting the plant to rubber mixing and cutting some 800 jobs.
With the closure of tyre factories so frequently announced, it is easy to spare little thought for the workers who suddenly find themselves without a means of supporting themselves or their families. But what does a tyre worker do when the tyre factory closes? After all, they can hardly apply for a job at another tyre factory across the road.
In the US a 33-member task force comprised of tyre manufacturers, automotive industry officials, independent experts and government have given their endorsement to a proposal to test the durability of aging tyres. This test, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) hopes to implement in 2007, will most likely involve placing tyres in a high oxygen environment and subjecting them to temperatures of up to 66° Celsius (150 degrees Fahrenheit) for periods of 8 or 10 weeks.
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