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The first rubber technology engineers studying under the joint education programme run by Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd. and Dunaújváros College have graduated. The tyre maker reports the ten graduates received their diplomas at a ceremony held in February.
Financially troubled US producer of specialty tyres, Denman Tire Corporation, has indicated it may shut down its operations if alternative arrangements cannot be made. In a company statement, Denman restructuring advisor Richard Szekelyi said “the company has reached the difficult decision to begin reducing operations while we continue our efforts to secure financing and/or find a buyer. If these efforts are unsuccessful, there will be no other alternative but to close all of the operations.”
BSRO, which operates Firestone Complete Auto Care, Tires Plus, ExpertTire and Wheel Works, opened 68 new automotive service locations across the USA in 2009, creating more than 800 new jobs. The new stores feature updated waiting rooms and consultation pods and offer improved bay spacing for customer vehicles.
County Louth, Ireland-based Crumb Rubber has highlighted what one report called the “inadequate state of recycling of tyres in Ireland.” Irish Trucker News quoted Leo Kerley of Crumb Rubber as saying a massive 29,000 tonnes of tyres are not being recycled in the republic annually. Kerley pointed out that approximately 6,000 tonnes of tyres are recycled on a yearly basis in Ireland. The inability of policing waste laws has reportedly left thousand of tonnes of tyre being stockpiled throughout the country.
HiQ franchisee North Eastern Tyre & Exhausts opened a new £2 million fast fit centre in Leeds at the end of 2009. HiQ representatives called the one-acre development “the best of its kind in Europe.” Stocking 20,000 tyres, featuring 12 bays and boasting some of the most modern vehicle diagnostic equipment in the country, the HiQ centre in Gelderd Road aims to alter age-old perceptions of fast fit centres and remove the fear associated with visiting them. The new site will create eight jobs.
In the USA Lawmakers from Texas and Oklahoma called on Thursday for a government report on the economy-wide effects of the 35 per cent tariff that President Barack Obama imposed on tyre imports from China, reports Tire Review. “I am concerned that the administration's tyre tax will cost us jobs in the United States and raise prices for tyres for hardworking Americans,” representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, said in a statement. “I want to make sure that the administration has all the facts so that it can best determine how and when to end that tax.”
The inauguration of Bekaert’s new steel cord facility in the Russian city of Lipetsk took place on January 20, and to mark the occasion Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev visited the plant. The Russian President and three Deputy Prime Ministers were accompanied by Bekaert CEO Bert De Graeve during their time at the site, which is located within the Lipetsk Special Economic Zone (SEZ), some 400 kilometres south of Moscow.
The World Trade Organisation will make a ruling on the complaint lodged by China last September over the US tariffs implemented on Chinese manufactured consumer tyres. A WTO spokesperson has confirmed a panel of experts who will decide upon the validity of China’s claim has already been established.
Half a year after announcing a postponement in the setting up of its Singapore based butyl rubber facility, synthetic rubber company Lanxess is bringing the timetable forward again. The company will now hold a groundbreaking ceremony in May 2010, and production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2013. The 100,000 tons per annum plant on Jurong Island will require an investment of up to 400 million euros.
Plans to cease tyre production at Michelin’s factory in Ota, Japan were announced on January 15. Upon giving word of the July 2010 end of passenger car and light truck tyres at the Gunma Prefecture site, Michelin explained that, despite taking measures to improve productivity, reduce production costs and, since 2007, refocus on the production of ‘complex products’, production costs at the Ota plant have remained around twice as high as those of other plants serving that tyre segment.
The owner of a new £100,000 fast fit centre in Helston is promising motorists a revolution in automotive care, after officially opening his forecourt to the public. Justin Roberton, who already runs successful operations in Truro, Bodmin and St Austell, is looking forward to welcoming motorists to a new centre in Clodgey Lane, Helston. The red ribbon was cut with HiQ’s retail director Juergen Titz on Saturday 9 January and both men predicted a bright future in the town.
The centre features modern, award winning branding and state-of-the-art facilities, even including a baby changing unit and a children’s play facility.
Irans’s Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) has reportedly earmarked $440 million dollars for the construction of a tyre factory in the country’s western Kordestan province. According to a report in the Tehran Times, the goal ultimate goal is for Iran to become self-sufficient in terms of tyre production.
In the USA, the TireJobs Company has announced an upgrade to its “Post Jobs” section of the TireJobs Classified website to make posting jobs a much easier process. A “one time” free job posting is available if contact is made directly with Carl Koester, the company president. TireJobs also provides comprehensive job searches and customised employment referral services for the tyre industry at www.tirejobs.com. It is a division of TAF Management, Inc; a consulting and project management company that helps commercial tyre dealers with sales promotions, business planning and other services.
News reports from Geneva say that the World Trade Organization will now launch a formal investigation into the Obama Administration’s imposition of a three-year added tariff on imported China-made consumer tyres. The first meeting in the investigation is supposed to occur on January 19, according to reports. Reports say that it could take as long as a year for the case to be resolved.
In a bid to find out what how one of the nation’s more modern tyre manufacturers has been fairing since the introduction of the ITC tariff, Tyres & Accessories initiated the following interview with Chinese tyre maker Sailun Tire. Surprisingly, T&A learnt that the company planned to continue selling a similar number of tyres into the US, despite the hefty new taxes, which they refer to as T421. Our first question was what is Sailun’s position on the US’s recent decision to impose 35 per cent import tariffs on Chinese tyres?
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