Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire (BFNT) has announced the start of a recall campaign in the US involving approximately 2,100 SUV and 4,200 motorcycle tyres. These tyres, says the company, do not have any structural or performance safety issues, and the recall is related to incorrect or absent sidewall markings.
Production of new aircraft radial tyres has begun at Bridgestone’s Tokyo Plant in August, reports the company following the completion of the facility’s initial phase. Once the Tokyo Plant is fully completed, which will likely occur by the end of 2011, Bridgestone estimates the factory’s overall production capacity of new aircraft tyres will be approximately 2.5 times the current level.
Declining sales of new cars in North America is expected to be reflected in lower passenger car tyre sales, says Bridgestone. The tyre major expects North America sales in this segment to fall 5 per cent this year. Company CFO Koki Takahashi added that the company expects OE tyre sales in North America to fall 14 per cent in 2008 and those in Europe to fall 3 per cent.
A Milan, Italy-based marine hose manufacturer and the former president of its former US subsidiary have agreed to plead guilty and pay more than US$2 million in criminal fines for participating in a global price fixing conspiracy. The former subsidiary president had also agreed to serve time in prison. Furthermore, an Italian executive of another marine hose manufacturer located in Veniano, Italy has also agreed to plead guilty for participating in the same conspiracy.
A one-count felony charge was filed today in US District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida against Manuli Rubber Industries SpA (Manuli) and Robert L. Furness, the former president of Manuli’s former Florida based subsidiary. Under the terms of the plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, Manuli has agreed to pay a criminal fine of $2 million, and Furness has agreed to serve 14 months in prison and pay a $75,000 criminal fine. Both Manuli and Furness have also agreed to cooperate fully in the Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation. Manuli is the first corporation to be charged in the investigation.
Pressure is mounting in New Zealand for the government to legislate against the importation of used cold weather tyres. These tyres, known as snow tyres in New Zealand, are regularly entering the country fitted to used vehicles imported from Japan – the most common source of second hand cars in this country – or loose in containers. While the tread depth on these tyres exceeds the 1.5mm minimum required in New Zealand, they are often fitted to vehicles also fitted with summer tyres and used in conditions they were not intended for. The inappropriate use of these tyres has been linked to several fatal accidents.
In the second half of 2008 Nihon Michelin Tire Co., Ltd will raise the delivery prices for its replacement market products in Japan. Michelin states this series of price increases is unavoidable: “In the last year or so the industry has registered a continued escalation in the prices of raw materials. Continued efforts to internally compensate for this situation are not enough, obliging us to partially reflect this state of affairs in our prices,” the company said in a press release.
The final location of Bridgestone’s new Tech Centre – which will cost around US$100 million – is to be confirmed in “the next several weeks”, a company spokesman has told a real estate news website. The Japan-headquartered manufacturer is to decide between moving the facility, along with its 600 jobs, to office space in Tennessee near Nashville that possesses the 600,000 sq ft required, or to remain in Akron, Ohio, which would require the building of a new facility.
The state of Ohio has provided an incentive package worth $68 million to remain in the area, where the company currently inhabits a century-old office block – dating back to the company’s beginnings in Akron – unfit for the purposes of the new Centre. Staying in the area would mean building anew. The company wishes to begin work at the proposed research building in 2010.
On July 19 Continental celebrated the production of the world’s 500 millionth floating calliper at its facility in Rheinböllen, Germany. Commenting on the occasion, Heinz Zingel, executive vice president of the Company’s Hydraulic Brake Systems Business Unit, which belongs to the Chassis & Safety Division, said “Each year, the Hydraulic Brake Systems Business Unit produces more than 33 million floating callipers at sites in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, the USA, Brazil, China, Japan and Taiwan. Annual production is some ten million at Rheinböllen alone, making it the world’s leading production site for Continental brake callipers.”
A two week tyre strike by 4,000 members of International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) Turkish affiliate Lastik-İş ended on 13 June, and workers from three tyre manufacturers resumed work the following day. The strike ended when a two-year accord was reached between the union and three global companies, Goodyear, Bridgestone and Pirelli, who jointly represented the tyre industry in talks.
The negotiations on 13 June were the first since the strike began on 31 May. Talks first began on a 2008-2009 labour agreement, covering four tyre factories, in September 2007. The two parties agreed to a 14 per cent pay increase for 2008, and an increase equalling the Turkish rate of inflation for 2009. In 2007, the Turkish rate of inflation was 8.39 per cent and is expected to rise above that this year. Lastik-İş had sought a 12 per cent wage rise for the first six months of 2008, with increases matching the inflation rate in each six-month period through 2009.
In August 2006 Bridgestone celebrated the delivery of five million run-flat tyres over the course of two decades; a mere twenty months later the company doubled this figure. On June 4 Bridgestone announced that it passed the ten million mark during April 2008.
Bridgestone says it recognises run-flat tyres as strategic products. The company also points to their environmental benefits, such as fuel economy through vehicle weight saving and reducing rubber consumption and scrap, and thus the company plans to further permeate and expand its run-flat market.
The first Bridgestone run-flat tyres were delivered in the early 1980s, the initial products being tyres fitted to specially manufactured vehicles for physically disabled persons. The first run-flats for a production vehicle model, the Porsche 959, were delivered in 1987. Bridgestone’s run-flat production has accelerated since 1999 as automakers have adopted run-flat specifications on a growing range of vehicle models, reflecting a changing environment surrounding motoring lifestyles. Currently the company produces run-flat tyres at six plants in four countries worldwide – Japan, the United States, Poland and South Africa.
The future location of 600 jobs at the Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire technical centre remains undecided after the company delayed the decision until the end of the year.
The tyre manufacturer has yet to produce an initial recommendation in order to decide whether to keep the technical centre in Akron, Ohio or to relocate the 600 roles to Nashville, Tennessee, in which BFNAT’s headquarters are currently located. The decision was initially planned for the end of May, but the recommendation will now be made by executives in Nashville and Japan in late 2008.
Since disclosing on February 12 this year incidents of improper monetary payments to foreign agents, all or a part of which may have been provided to foreign governmental officials, the CEO of Bridgestone Corporation, Mr. Shoshi Arakawa, has directed an ongoing investigation through an ‘Investigation Committee (the ‘committee’) comprised of external attorneys. On the three-month anniversary of the committee’s initial establishment, the company presented its interim report, which is outlined below:
1. Investigation
Since the announcement on February 12, the committee has conducted the investigation ‘vigorously’, says Bridgestone. However, the scope of this investigation is extensive and includes some of the company’s overseas subsidiaries. The subject of the investigation has now expanded to the entirety of Bridgestone’s Industrial Products division. Moreover, since the committee needs to consider not only Japan’s Unfair Competition Act but also the regulations of other countries, this latest report remains an interim report and has not been made final.
Toyo Tyres (UK) Ltd has announced that MD Tatsuo Mitsuhata will move to Toyo’s European Head Office in Germany to become vice president of Toyo Tire Europe GmbH, Toyo UK’s parent company. The move takes effect at the end of May. As a result of the promotion, Koji Toyoda has been appointed as managing director in the UK, following authorisation at a board meeting at Toyo Tire Europe on 30 April 2008.
Bridgestone and Michelin are among the companies offering financial aid to the Chinese earthquake relief fund. Bridgestone Corporation has donated 30 million Yen (184,440 euros) to support relief efforts. The company made the donation through the Japan Red Cross.
Michelin China Investment Co. donated the sum of 500,000 Yuan (46,125 euros). Bridgestone (China) Investment Co., Ltd., the China subsidiary of Bridgestone, also decided to donate 300,000 Chinese Yuan (27,675 euros) through the China Red Cross.
An increase in net sales of 10.9 per cent has been reported by Yokohama Rubber for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. This figure is slightly higher than the recently revised projection of 10.6 per cent and equates to 551.4 billion yen (£2.74 billion). Operating income, at 33.1 billion yen (£164.77 million), was up 57.2 per cent, again slightly higher than the projected figure (56.6 per cent). Net income, at 21,06 billion yen (£104.84 million), was up by 28.7 per cent on last year’s results but 1.8 per cent below those of 2006.
Leading the sales growth were gains in tyre markets outside Japan, says Yokohama. Total tyre sales for the year were 419.83 billion yen (£2.09 billion), an increase of 12.6 per cent. The double-digit sales growth reportedly more than offset the still-rising prices for raw materials and the upward trend in logistics costs. Operating profitability also benefited from the weakening of the yen during the fiscal year. Operating income climbed 77.6 per cent in Yokohama’s Tire Group, to 26.0 billion yen (£129.67 million). Progress in expanding production capacity at Yokohama’s tyre plants in Asia supported the company’s unit sales growth in markets outside Japan. Also contributing to the increased operating income in the Tire Group was improved profitability at subsidiaries in the United States and in Asian nations besides Japan.
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