Prices for new Bridgestone truck and bus tyres in the Japanese market are to rise by an average of 10 per cent as of September 1, while retreaded truck and bus tyre prices will simultaneously increase by five per cent. The increase applies to both summer and winter tyres.
Japan’s Asahi Kasei Chemicals has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new synthetic rubber plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island. The June 22 event marks the start of work on a facility expected to produce 50,000 tons of solution-polymerised styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) a year when the first stage work is complete in May 2013. Second stage work at the site, scheduled for completion in early 2015, should double annual output.
As of June 24, 2011, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries has clarified that it expects a 4.9 per cent rise in the total supply of natural rubber for 2011. The Association estimated that 9.936 million tonnes will be produced this year. It issued a statement to rebuff reports that the ANRPC has quoted different figures.
The Indian Oil Corporation has entered a joint-venture agreement with Taiwan’s TSRC Corporation and Japan’s Corporation to set up a synthetic rubber factory in India. According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, the three companies will hold respective 50, 30 and 20 per cent stakes in a joint-venture factory that is planned to produce 200,000 tonnes of synthetic rubber a year for the tyre industry.
Truck and bus tyre production has commenced at Bridgestone’s Indore factory in India’s Madhya Pradesh State. The Bridgestone India facility, which has been producing passenger car tyres since 1998, was expanded to cater for the country’s growing demand for truck and bus radials through an Rs 1,700 million (£22.8 million) investment. Bridgestone India anticipates producing around 200 TBR tyres per day at the plant by the end of this year and twice that number by mid-2012.
For an eighth consecutive year, Michelin has come up trumps in J.D. Power Asia Pacific’s survey of customer satisfaction amongst winter tyre users in Japan. The French tyre maker has held this distinction in every Japan Winter Tire Customer Satisfaction Index Study since the first was held seven years ago; in 2011 it performed “particularly well” in all six tested factors and scored 653 points out of a possible 1,000; second-placed brand Bridgestone was, with 609 points, also ranked above the industry average of 583 points. Trailing in last place for customer satisfaction in the eight-brand study was Falken, with 515 points.
Takao Oishi, who has headed up Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) in the US since April 2008, is returning to Japan to take up the position of general manager of Yokohama Rubber’s Industrial Products business group. Taking his place as president and CEO of YTC is Yasushi Tanaka, who begins in the role on June 29. Tanaka, previously in charge of corporate planning within Yokohama Rubber’s GD100 Promotion department, will be based at YTC’s corporate headquarters in Fullerton, California. His promotion also includes being named president of Yokohama Corporation of America and president of Yokohama Corporation of North America. Tanaka remains a Yokohama Rubber corporate officer.
The world is becoming increasingly mobile and vehicle parcs in emerging markets are swelling through first-time car purchases. In many countries motorists travel on a road infrastructure not designed with such volumes of traffic or modern vehicle technology in mind, and for this reason products designed for Western Europe may not present the best solution there; affordable technical solutions that accommodate differing conditions are required. This certainly applies to tyres. Concurrent to the Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2011, an event described as the global summit for sustainable mobility, Michelin released a new product aimed primarily at emerging markets, the Energy XM2.
Those wishing to catch the Green Wave don’t have long to wait – the global tree planting campaign advocated by the United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity is taking place on May 22 – the International Day for Biological Diversity. In Japan, however, the Green Wave has already been washing over the land for more than two months, as the country’s government declared the 16 weeks between March 1 and June 15 its “Green Wave 2011” period. During this time schools, companies and organisations have been encouraged to carry out tree planting campaigns. It goes without saying that Yokohama Rubber, whose Forever Forest programme is now in its fourth year, has embraced the programme.
Construction on Toyo Tire & Rubber’s new factory in Malaysia is expected to begin this year and production in 2013. Japanese media organisation Nikkei reports the tyre maker will invest around 20 billion yen (£153 million) in a six million passenger car tyre per annum plant that will primarily meet demand in China, India and other emerging Asian markets. According to Nikkei the new plant, which complements the newly-acquired three million tyre per year Silverstone plant, will make Malaysia Toyo’s main Asian centre of production outside of Japan. By 2015, will produce 12.5 million units in Asia each year, Nikkei adds.
Back in January, the Falken Motorsport Team announced that it would return to the Nürburgring 24 Hour race on 25-26 June running a GT3 R specification Porsche 911, in a break from its tradition of Japanese sports cars. Peter Dumbreck, will be racing the car in this year’s 24 Hours, also breaking from Japanese manufactured cars, exemplified by his Nissan GTR drive in this year’s GT1 World Championship, though he notes that he has “driven a few Porsches earlier in my career including the Alzen 996 Turbo and 996 and 997 Cup cars in the Carrera Cup six or seven years ago. I’ve also driven an older RSR at the Nurburging in 2005”. Previewing the event for Falken, Dumbreck talked about the differences between driving Porsche models, such as the 997, and Nissan’s GTR, including his impressions of the Falken tyre specifications for the former, on which they have been tested.
Ben Butlin has joined research firm JATO Dynamics as global research director. Prior to JATO, Butlin’s career included 17 years at Ford where he began as a professional mechanical engineer. His role developed into overseeing quality, product planning and project management with international assignments in Belgium, USA and Japan. His most recent role at Ford was global CV product planning manager where he was responsible for the alignment of LCV product planning across all regions.
The UK distributor for Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama has organised a charity rock concert to support the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. Yokohama HPT Ltd has covered the cost of the concert, so that 100 per cent of the proceeds will go directly to the appeal and support the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in March. The 'Sounds for Sendai' concert will take place on Sunday 22 May at the Marshall Amplification Theatre in Milton Keynes and will feature a stunning line-up headlined by the renowned Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash with support acts Stray and Motherlode.
The planting of trees as part of Yokohama Rubber’s ‘Forever Forest’ project began as a means of creating a greener environment at the company’s facilities in the years leading up to its centenary in 2017, and so far around 183,000 of the planned half a million trees have been planted. In addition to planting trees at its Japanese and international sites, as part of the project Yokohama Rubber has committed itself to supply seedlings to external organisations and companies. During the first three years of the scheme it supplied nearly 50,000 seedlings to outside groups – from the project’s commencement until the end of March 2011 some 37,000 seedlings were planted in Japan and 13,000 overseas at a total of 81 sites. Each seedling planted was raised from a seed by Yokohama employees.
Two Yokohama Rubber employees have been acknowledged by Japan’s government for their work on developing tyre inner liner technology. Yuichi Hara and Yoshiaki Hashimura, both research and development managers at Yokohama, received “Commendations for Science and Technology” from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science. The awards were given in the development category for developing a tyre inner liner that possesses a balance between the low air permeability of resin and the flexibility offered by rubber, thereby substantially reducing air leakage despite being only 20 per cent as thick as a conventional liner. The product developed by the pair and their research teams was released in 2009 under the name Advanced inner liner.
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