The National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India has dismissed allegations of rubber future price manipulation. Despite claims from Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association director-general Rajiv Budhraja regarding “evidence for the price manipulation of natural rubber on the NMCE,” the commodity exchange states prices for the raw material have risen due to an imbalance between demand and supply.
An eight-month mystery has come to a grisly close, yet the discovery of Uwe Gemballa’s body in South Africa opens the door to a number of fresh questions. The 51-year old owner of the German company Gemballa, best known for its Porsche tuning parts, disappeared shortly after arriving in South Africa in February. Late that month media reports indicated Gemballa had telephoned his wife, instructing her to transfer a million euros into his bank account. It was suggested he had been involved in an accident of some sort.
The Korea Times has reported the death of a 27-year old man employed as a subcontract worker in Hankook Tire’s Daejeon factory in South Korea. According to the September 27 published article, the death is the 16th amongst workers at Hankook’s Korean facilities since May 2006 and the deaths “are suspected to be related to the working environment.” The man, who is identified by the name ‘Lee’, is said to have had no previous health concerns and was employed to examine the surface of newly manufactured tyres.
A man from County Down, Northern Ireland has been fined £900 after he disposed of waste tyres on a bonfire. Leonard Nicholson was ordered to pay £150 on each of the six charges brought under The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 following an investigation into a Newry bonfire conducted by the country’s Environment Agency.
The Office for Fair Trading raided Mercedes-Benz’s UK headquarters this week as part of an investigation in alleged price fixing and cartel behaviour in the commercial vehicle industry. According to a Telegraph report the OFT has also requested information from Sweden’s Scania and Germany’s MAN.
Robin Hood is arguably Britain’s best loved criminal figure, his dealings with the rich abundantly forgiven by his generosity to the poor. But if Robin had engaged in a far less noble crime – dumping tyres, for example – we probably would have viewed him very differently. A director from Robin Hood Environmental Ltd learned this lesson the hard way upon pleading guilty to three charges relating to the illegal dumping, keeping and shredding of tyres.
Kevin Ecclestone’s For Tyres shop in Bucknall, Stoke-on-Trent has lost nearly £600 after Streamline – his credit card handler – reclaimed the money paid by people using cloned cards, reports The Sentinel. “They are all people who have seen us trading on the internet,” Ecclestone told the local paper. “They ring up and pay over the phone with a credit card before the tyres are picked up. When you say they can pay when they collect they make up an excuse, like they need to send someone else to get the tyres.”
As National Motorcycle Week kicks off, TyreSafe is warning riders that continuous upright riding on fast straight routes can harm their bikes’ tyres. Long journeys on motorways can cause the meeting of the tyre’s sidewall and tread to ‘square-off’, which gives a feeling of loss of grip when the bike is used on winding roads, according to the safety association. Often on long journeys motorcyclists switch from the motorway to fast A- and B-roads, without knowing their bikes’ handling may be compromised.
In the years since Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 entered the statute books in 2008, much has been made of the need for companies to risk assess their activities. But did you know that failure to apply a full risk assessment in the purchase of a commercial vehicle wheel can ultimately lead to a corporate manslaughter charge? Surprised? Well you may also like to know that should the item fail and cause a catastrophic injury, prison could even be on the cards, a leading solicitor has warned.
Mike Rainford, head of business crime at leading North West’s criminal practice, Burton Copeland, made the comments following a meeting with John Ellis, managing director of Motor Wheel Service, who has raised his concerns on this matter with Tyres & Accessories before.
TyreSafe has reported on the risks associated with buying part worn tyres following revelations from Birmingham City Council that its trading standards officers examined a selection of part worn tyres being sold in the city and found that nine out of ten failed to meet the minimum legal standards. Among the failures uncovered were tyres with embedded nails, illegal tread depth, exposed cords, inadequate markings – and one tyre that was 17 years old. The investigation comes just weeks after TyreSafe found that more than ten per cent of drivers are more likely to buy part worn tyres compared with a year ago.
Birmingham City Council’s trading standards officers recently found that nine out of ten part worn tyres examined in an inspection failed to meet the minimum legal standards. In response industry body TyreSafe is publicising the results of the investigation in order to raise awareness of what it calls “the high levels of risk associated with buying part worn tyres.”
According to Birmingham City Council’s trading standards officers, tyres which had nails embedded, illegal tread depth, exposed cords, inadequate markings and one tyre which was 17 years old were among the failures. The investigation comes just a few weeks after TyreSafe found that more than one in ten drivers was more likely to buy part worn tyres compared with 12 months ago.
The investigation formed part of an ongoing programme by Birmingham City Council to target sales of part worn tyres. This year was its ninth annual investigation and saw it buy 10 tyres from retailers across the city. Over the course of the entire programme, the team bought and tested more than 190 part worn tyres with 25 per cent found to have “some form of structural defect.” In this year’s survey 30 per cent of tyres had structural failings including illegal tread depth and a nail embedded in the casing while 90 per cent did not have the correct markings required by law, which identify them as a part worn tyre.
Envirotyre has suffered a significant fire at its tyre reprocessing plant on Littleburn Industrial Estate, Langley Moor, County Durham. According to local news reports, firefighters were called to the scene at about 10.30am today (22 April 2010). Fire chiefs reported that the fire could burn “for several more days.” No injuries have been reported. There has been no confirmation of how much damage has been caused.
The Northern Echo reported that a plume of smoke emanating from burning tyre chip in at firm could be seen rising “hundreds of feet into the sky and [could be] seen as far away as Morpeth, in Northumberland, and on Teesside.” The fire is said to have burnt at close to 1,000 degrees Celsius at its peak.
On March 24, a Malvern man was sentenced to a total of 12 months imprisonment for illegally depositing and storing used tyres at his workplace and home. Mark Alexanda Smith, aged 43, pleaded guilty at Worcester Crown Court on 13 January 2010 to three charges relating to the illegal deposit and keeping of controlled waste. The charges were brought by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Mr Smith was sentenced to four months imprisonment for each of the three offences, with the sentences to run consecutively.
The internet has become a rich source of speculation over the disappearance of Uwe Gemballa. The founder of the Porsche tuning company Gemballa disappeared after arriving in the South African city of Johannesburg more than two weeks ago. According to German police reports, Gemballa telephoned his wife in Germany shortly after arriving on February 8, informing her to transfer a million euros to a particular bank account. Police say the 51-year old stated he’d had an accident and needed a large sum of money. Since then he has not been able to be contacted.
An article published by Tire Review in the US indicates that Chinese officials may be guilty of ‘fowl play’ – anti-dumping duties have been added to chicken products imported from the United States, allegedly a direct response to the Obama Administration’s decision to add high tariffs – 35 per cent in the first year – over a three-year period on consumer tyres imported from China.
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