Manufacturing Archives - Page 179 of 257 - Tyrepress

Whether its raw materials, machinery, research and development or the latest manufacturing trends, this tag provides up-to-the-minute insights into the upstream part of the tyre industry.

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Trelleborg Increases Industrial Tyre Prices

Trelleborg Wheel Systems has announced price increases ranging from 8 to 10 per cent, depending on country and local currencies. According to the company, these increases will affect both the replacement and Original Equipment manufacturing channels Trelleborg operates in. Trelleborg signalled that further price increase may be necessary during the course of 2008.

A company statement on the matter explained that Trelleborg Wheel Systems was “forced to act” by “the continuous and relevant increase of the cost of raw materials, made even worse by the strong acceleration seen in the first quarter.” The news comes two weeks after Watts Industrial Tyres raised its prices between 6 and 10 per cent, citing “limited worldwide rubber production.”

27th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Maxxis Vietnam Factory’s Output to Increase to 16,000 Tyres Daily

Opened in July last year Cheng Shin Rubber Vietnam Ind. Co. Ltd – the Maxxis factory located in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam – has announced plans to increase its daily capacity to 16,000 tyres. The 200,000 square metre manufacturing plant’s current capacity is 8,000 motorcycle tyres a day, with this figure set to double by the end of 2008. The facility, which employs 265 people and commenced production in February 2007, supplies mainly to the Vietnamese replacement market, with some export sales to other south-east Asian countries. Having developed its position in the region’s aftermarket business, Maxxis is reportedly targeting the domestic OE sector in Vietnam and the surrounding Asian countries.

27th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin NA Seeks To Drive Innovation at InnoVenture 2008

Michelin North America is engaging entrepreneurs and companies from across the region it serves to join its efforts to innovate the transportation industry, boost diversity and reduce the environmental footprint of its manufacturing operations. The InnoVenture forum, a program intended to bring together hundreds of corporate researchers, development experts, and academics from across the Southeast, will be held March 25-26 at the Carolina First Center in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Michelin sees InnoVenture as an opportunity to connect with some of the brightest minds in our region to discuss potential solutions to some of the modern challenges to manufacturing and marketing products,” said Ralph Hulseman, director of External Research, Michelin Americas Research Co. “The discourse sparked by today’s forum could very well lead to tomorrow’s innovations.”

26th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper Announces US Recall

Cooper Tire & Rubber has issued a tyre recall in the US for 20 product lines manufactured at the company’s factory in Georgia, including the Discoverer, Wildcat and Wild Country ranges. The voluntary recall, instigated on March 14, has been put in place to address sidewall separation issues and covers a total of 48,037 tyres.

This is Cooper’s second recall in the US within a 12 month period; in July 2007 the company recalled 91,747 Dominator Sport A/T tyres as a result of allegations of tyre failure. Analysis and testing carried out by Cooper found “no manufacturing or design defect” in the tyres, however the company still chose to issue a voluntary recall.

26th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone to Increase Aircraft Tyre Capacity

Production capacity at Bridgestone’s Tokyo manufacturing plant will increase through the addition of new aircraft tyre products, the tyre major announced on March 21. At present the Kurume facility in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture is the only Bridgestone factory producing new aircraft radial tyres, however production at the Tokyo plant will commence in the second half of the year.

The recent decision to further increase capacity means total production capacity of aircraft radials will be two and a half times the current level. Total investment earmarked for this project is around 2.5 billion yen (£12.5 million). When in production the Tokyo plant, along with that in Kurume, will complement Bridgestone’s aircraft tyre retreading facilities in North America, Europe, Asia and Japan.

26th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

MMTC Aiming for 20% of Indian CV Tyre Import Market

MMTC, the Indian state run trading company, has its sights set on between 15 and 20 per cent of Indian truck tyre import market. The company plans to take its slice of the pie by importing Chinese produced cross-ply (and importantly radial tyres) into the 120,000 unit market segment from April, the Hindu Business Line reported.

The news makes MMTC the first major outfit to start importing tyres into India. According to reports, while the import market is growing and is not insignificant in size (it is said to account for 13-14 per cent of the Indian domestic truck and bus tyre market), up till now tyre imports were shared between 35-odd smaller players. Some observers are suggesting that the move could result in the establishment of an important industry lobby, which could potentially have an effect on market-wide issues like the country’s radialisation rate, currently around 5 per cent.

20th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo Tire Appoints James Hawk as Corporate Officer

Toyo Tire Japan has appointed James Hawk as a corporate officer, making him the first non-Japanese corporate officer since the company was founded in 1945. In addition to this new position, Hawk has been promoted to president and plant manager of Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc. (TNA), the company’s US passenger car and light truck tyre manufacturing plant located in White, Georgia.

20th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Amerityre Acquires Kik Technology Assets

Amerityre Corporation has bought “a significant portion of the manufacturing assets of Kik Technology, Inc. (Kik), itself a polyurethane foam tyres maker. The assets acquired include tyre models and moulds used by Kik to produce low-duty cycle polyurethane foam tyres. Kik will cease business operations.

“The acquisition of the models and moulds provides Amerityre with the capability to produce a broader range of products to better service the low-duty cycle tire market,” commented Dr. Gary N. Benninger, Amerityre’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “With this expanded variety of tire products and sizes, Amerityre will now be able to offer its customers a Flatfree tyre for every application. For its fiscal year 2006 (February 1, 2006 to January 31, 2007) Kik reported foam tyre product sales of $1,857,666 and $937,645 for the nine month period ending October 31, 2007,“ he added.

19th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Amtel Vredestein Shuts Down Moscow Tyre Plant

Amtel Vredestein has reportedly shut down production at the Moscow Tyre Plant. Informed sources told Tyres & Accessories that the move paves the ways for the sale of the factory’s tyre production equipment. The news came only a day after the AK&M agency reported that Alexei Gurin has been appointed as the director general of the Moscow Tyre Plant. This report stated that the plant continues to manufacture pneumatic tyres for cars and trucks under the Taganka trade name. No-one at Amtel Vredestein’s press department in Russia was available to comment.

18th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Tyre Manufacturer Set To Take Off

Tyre makers and automobile component manufacturers in India are now venturing into the production of aircraft components. India-based MRF Tyres, Minda NTS and Sundram Fasteners are going ahead with plans to supply components to aircraft manufacturers.

17th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian MD Warns Of Falling Margins

Unless there is a dramatic revision in prices of crude oil and natural rubber, margins for tyre manufacturing sector may decrease in 2008-09, according to Mr Paras Chowdhary, Managing Director of Indian manufacturer Ceat Ltd.

17th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Honoured with Award for UK Recycling

In recent years the pendulum has begun to swing away from the ‘throw away’ mindset dominant in western cultures, with the need to become a more sustainable society an increasingly discussed topic. And tyre manufacturers have not stood aloof from such environmental issues – as part of its commitment to develop a sustainable community for the future, Goodyear Dunlop set in place a corporate directive to reduce its landfill waste to zero by December 2007. Not only has the company achieved this goal, as a result of the project’s success Severnside Recycling Company awarded Goodyear Dunlop its Personal Commitment to Recycling award.

12th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti May Merge Siemens VDO Facilities – Wennemer

According to Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer, the merger of some of the Siemens VDO production plants Conti acquired last year remains a possibility. In an interview with the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, Mr. Wennemer said “we have 200 plants in 36 countries. We certainly do not need all of these plants. One has to combine them in order to improve the manufacturing capacity of each of these plants.”

While the CEO did not elaborate on which facilities may be affected, he used the manufacture of airbags as a case in point: “We make airbags in Regensburg and Ingolstadt (Germany), in America, China and South America. We will examine which are the most competitive. And we will decide to produce the airbags there.”

10th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Voted Manufacturer of Year at Cologne Expo

At this year’s Tire Technology Expo, held in Cologne, Germany, a new series of awards acknowledging excellence in the tyre industry was launched, and Bridgestone was named the inaugural “Tyre Manufacturer of the Year”. This honour was announced at the 2008 Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence ceremony and gala dinner, held on February 20.

10th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Awards Recognise Eco-Friendly Innovations

The inaugural Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence were presented at the recent Tire Technology Expo, in Cologne and there was a marked emphasis on environmentally-friendly technologies and products.

Michelin picked up the Tire Technology of the Year Award for its continuing development of its already-established Energy Saver range of tyres. In the latest development (for tyres for the Peugeot 306) a new silica-based compound helps reduce rolling resistance, saving fuel and lowering carbon emissions.

7th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors