Online news sources are reporting that South China Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Yitao Rubber Manufacture Co., Ltd. have signed cooperation agreement at a ceremony celebrating the creation of the Guangzhou Huayiyang Co., Limited joint venture.
The joint venture lithium-ion battery systems company formed by Continental and Korea’s SK Innovation, SK Continental E-motion, officially commenced operations earlier this month after gaining approval from the relevant authorities. Continental reports that “all relevant authorities have given unrestricted approval to the antitrust application submitted by the two companies” and that all provisions of the agreement signed with SK Innovation on 23 July 2012 have come into force.
Use in tyres, particularly in harsh environments such as underground mines, is just one of a number of areas the product of a new partnership will be applied to. Specialty chemicals company Chemtura Corporation and machinery firm Caterpillar Inc. have announced their entry into a joint venture agreement to explore “novel applications” for Chemtura’s Duracast hot-cast urethane pre-polymer technology for construction and mining equipment.
Iona Capital has recently announced an investment in Gradena Limited to recycle waste tyres and UPVC. Gradena is a joint venture between Gradsol Ltd and Dena Technology Ltd, a provider of nanotechnology solutions and will manufacture wood replacement goods from the waste tyres and UPVC. Gradsol is a management consultancy company that specialises in sustainability and operational consultancy, particularly in the waste sector.
Russian tyre maker Cordiant, formerly Sibur-Russian Tyres, confirmed in late July plans to invest US$400 million in its Western Siberia tyre plants. This announcement was made following a plant visit undertaken by Omsk region governor Viktor Nazarov on 27 July.
Number one Turkish tyre brand, Lassa has opened its first Italian flagship store in Milan. The Lassa Shop’s staff will specialise in providing tyres and assistance for the Brisa-manufactured brand, with two customer initiatives launched at the same time: a courtesy bike programme, supplying bicycles to customers changing tyres, and the new Tyre SOS text service, which provides contact details for nearby Lassa dealers should problems occur.
A newly created joint venture between USON’s leak testers and Innovative Products and Equipment’s automation systems expertise, USON-Innovative Systems (UIS), has resulted in a single source turnkey solution for semi-automated and fully automated leak testing applications.
On 29 February Pirelli & C. Spa and Russian Technologies finalised the transfer of the Voronezh tyre plant from Russian petrochemical company Sibur to the Pirelli-Russian Technologies joint venture. All payments under the deal will be made before 30 March 2012. Yesterday’s transaction follows the December transfer of the Kirov tyre plant from Sibur to the joint venture. In total, the joint venture has invested 222 million euros in the transfer.
Swedish company Trelleborg has announced a number of organisational changes in preparation for the start of a light and heavy vehicle anti-vibration solutions joint venture with Germany’s Freudenberg & Co. KG. Trelleborg says the changes will “further strengthen and focus the Group.” The planned reorganisation does not involve company’s tyre making operation, Trelleborg Wheel Systems.
Continental Corporation and Korean company SK Innovation have announced they will jointly develop, manufacture and market lithium ion batteries systems for electric vehicles. The two companies have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture for this purpose, with SK Innovation and Continental holding 51 and 49 per cent ownership respectively.
In a jointly-issued statement, Pirelli and Sibur-Russian Tyres announced that, in line with the agreement signed between the two tyre makers and Russian Technologies on 25 July, the transfer of the Kirov plant from Sibur to the joint venture set up by Pirelli and Russian Technologies was finalised on 14 December.
A buyer for Sibur Holding’s tyre business may be announced before the end of this year, Bloomberg reports. New owners Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko are apparently “close” to securing buyers for Sibur-Russian Tyres plus the company’s Sibur-Fertilizers business; their sale forms part of the owners’ new focus on specialty chemicals, Bloomberg states.
Hong Kong-based, Bermuda-registered company Pearl River Tyre (Holdings) Limited, who is 70 per cent shareholder in the joint venture company Guangzhou Pearl River Rubber Tyre Ltd, has been told by its controlling shareholders that negotiations with a potential buyer have been terminated.
China’s Aeolus Tyre Co., Ltd will reportedly enter a joint venture with four other parties. The tyre maker is said to be investing RMB 40 million (£3.8 million) in the joint venture, a figure that will give it a 40 per cent share. China National Tire & Rubber Corporation will hold a 35 per cent share while a Shanxi-based tyre company, a Guilin-based rubber company, and a Qingdao-based conveyor company will respectively have a ten, ten and five stake in the joint venture company. According to Reuters, the joint venture will deal in the international trade, processing, import and export of products, technologies and equipment.
With great sadness Maxxis International (UK) PLC has announced the loss of Peter McMartin the company’s founder and chairman. Peter McMartin passed away peacefully with family at his side, late in the evening of Monday 14 February, following a short battle with cancer.
Born in Falkirk, in 1932, Peter McMartin’s entrepreneurial career took off in the early 1970s when he began importing car and motorcycle parts from Japan. He then went on to focus exclusively on motorcycle parts before merging his company with distributor Bickers Anglia (Accessories) Limited in 1986. In 1998 Peter successfully completed the purchase of the company and went on to develop the business with the support of his directors and committed, loyal workforce. The company converted into PLC status for a short time before a new joint venture company was formed in March 2005, Maxxis International UK plc. Maxxis still uses the Bickers name to continue trading in the motorcycle industry, while using the Maxxis brand to trade in the automotive tyre sector. Peter had remained active as chairman until just a few weeks prior to his death, always maintaining a positive hands-on approach to the company he loved.
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