Fabien Barel claimed a world first in winning the first event of the Enduro World Series championship with 27.5” Michelin prototype mountain bike tyres. The world’s best riders competed in Punta Ala, Italy on Saturday, 18 May and Sunday, 19 May for the first race in the championship. Barel finished the event with a 12.5-second lead over the second-place finisher.
Marangoni Group once again shared a large stand at Autopromotec, probably the largest in the dedicated retreading section of hall 22.
With regard to retreading, which accounts for most of the group’s business in the Italian market, Marangoni announced that important new additions have been made to the Marix range of retreads. These includinged the MD National Grip 3 for regional heavy transport, and upgraded compounds mainly in the Energeco line for long distance applications. For the earthmoving sector, the MDT Recaflex pattern, available in size 27.00X49 for heavy-duty dumpers has been added. Other products on display include patterns for 4x4s, SUVs and vans, representing a wide range that has been expanded even further.
As well as a number of other aftermarket-orientated seminars Tyres & Accessories has already reported on, Autopromotec’s AutopromotecEDU plenary track also featured what was purportedly Italy’s first conference on remanufacturing. Entitled, “Excellence in material recycling and the industrial remanufacturing cycle”, the conference was introduced and moderated by Il Sole 24 Ore’s journalist Maurizio Caprino. He provided an overview on the current state and future perspectives of the remanufacturing industry, with several interesting presentations.
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World Champion Italian cyclist Ivan Basso was at the Kenda Tyres booth at Autopromotec on 24 May. Between 10:00 and 12 noon the cycling star signed autographs and met with fans. The tyre conection is that Kenda tyres is currently the official tyre sponsor of the Cannondale Pro Cycling team based in Milan, Italy.
Lassa Tyres presented its latest winter tyre, the Snoways 3 at Autopromotec. In addition Lassa showcased 21 different models, which are marketed and sold in more than 60 countries.
Despite the launch, the main focus of Lassa stand was the flagship Phenoma UHP tyre, which is said to be a popular choice in sport and prestige segment for upper class automobiles and tuning vehicles. The Competus H/P, Impetus REVO and Greenways, Lassa’s eco-friendly passenger tyre line, were also on-show.
In April, the EU market for new passenger cars grew for the first time (+1.7 per cent) since September 2011. The region counted on average two more working days compared to the same month last year, which would account for the increase. In absolute figures, it is the third lowest level of new registrations for a month of April, with the historic low for April reached in 2012 (1,021,358 units). A total of 1,038,343 units was recorded in the EU in April this year, or 1.7 per cent more compared to the low level of April last year.
Ever since agricultural-based biomaterials company Yulex Corporation was established, it has been supported by the University of Arizona; indeed, Yulex’s first experimental crops were planted on campus grounds and the university substantially contributed to Yulex's agronomic development successes. Yulex Corporation has now announced it will provide the University of Arizona a US$3 million, five-year grant. This grant focuses on the breeding and agronomic development of Guayule with the aim of producing biorubber for medical, consumer, and industrial applications.
Leading brake manufacturer Brembo has posted first quarter 2013 net consolidated revenues of 371.9 million euros, up 6.3 per cent compared to the first quarter of the previous year. Pre-tax profits grew even faster. EBITDA amounted to 47.3 million euros (12.7 per cent of revenues), up 10.2 per cent compared to first quarter of previous year. Meanwhile EBIT amounted to 26.1 million euros (7 per cent of revenues), up 9.3 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2012.
Thailand based manufacturer Stamford Sport Wheels (SSW) has launched a new alloy wheel design collection into the UK and European wheel markets, the Euro Technik. The company says the new range marks a first venture into Europe having become established in South East Asia. The design has been exclusively produced in a European style targeting prestige and luxury high performance marques.
Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development reports that a technical working group met on 16 April to discuss issues linked to Bridgestone’s Bari factory. The meeting, chaired by Ministry of Economic Development undersecretary Claudio De Vincenti and attended by deputy minister for Employment and Social Policies Michel Martone, senior Italian and European Bridgestone management, union, regional and local representatives, covered topics that included the energy costs related to x-ray facilities at the passenger car tyre factory and how to increase efficiency. The group will meet again on 2 May to give guidance on cost containment measures and the Bari site’s market positioning.
In recent times a website in Italy has raised the hackles of at least one wholesaler within that country. The site, gommaflash.com, uses an application that offers tyre dealers – for an annual fee of between 500 and 700 euros – the opportunity to view and compare the prices and conditions offered by all distributors. GommaFlash obtains the information by using the dealer’s passwords to enter each B2B distributor’s platform. Prices and other information are displayed in real time.
Pirelli has launched the third generation of its Sottozero winter tyre. The Winter Sottozero 3 is designed for cars with medium to large capacity engines and places an emphasis on grip in all conditions and tyre longevity.
The organiser of last month’s Pneu Expo in France reports that 100 exhibitors from 17 countries displayed their wares at the three-day show. Exhibitor numbers were thus similar to the previous show, and organiser Editions VB says two thirds of the 2013 exhibitors have signed up for the next event.
Figures for CV registrations in Europe, released by ACEA, show that they fell by 13.3 per cent in February and were down -11.9 per cent over the first two months, year on year. February was the fourteenth consecutive month that demand for commercial vehicles in the EU was down.
Falken Tyres reports that it will be the first tyre company to explore the advertising potential of two digital screens on the M5 and M6 motorways. According to the company, the adverts will be used to reach out to motorists, especially those making Easter holiday journeys.
The boards display adverts on both the North and South sides, rotating a 15 second Falken advert every minute for 24 hours a day. The adverts will be displayed for 14 days which will result in a total of 40,320 Falken adverts being projected to passing motorists.
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