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.
United Steelworkers of America members have ratified an agreement providing severance packages and lump-sum payments involving Continental Tire North America’s decision to close its tyre plant in Mayfield, Kentucky, within the next few months.
LMI Technologies Inc., the global producer of sensors used in automated systems and controls in a number of industries including the automotive and tyre manufacturing businesses, has adopted a new logo and corporate identity under the name “Sensors That See”.
The organisation has R&D, engineering and manufacturing facilities across the globe, in Canada and the USA, Sweden, Ireland and The Netherlands. It also has dealers in countries such as India and China.
Uzmai International has announced that Heuver Banden Groothandel BV will exclusively distribute its range of Maitech all steel radial tyres in Benelux, Germany Romania. “With the support of our customers and product team, we carefully evaluated the Maitech All Steel Radial tyre. We all agreed that the Maitech product offered the very best in terms of quality, performance, availability and value for money, the products were unmatched in these key areas. We provide only the best products for our customers” stated Alfred van Dijk, sales director EM at Heuver Banden.
(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is voluntarily recalling 79,857 tyres, which had been manufactured at its Albany, Georgia, plant earlier this year. The company said that during an eight-day period, the tyres in question were produced using “a non-comforming component.” The company said the recall is a “safety precaution” and came about when “our inspection and surveillance system detected a tyre component that did not meet company standards.
Alcoa Wheel Products has announced that it will install a new Dura-Bright line at its manufacturing facility in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. The new line will be the third such facility and will provide a significant addition in wheel capacity. Both passenger car and commercial vehicle wheels will be processed through this new line in Hungary. The new facility will begin producing Dura-Bright XBR wheels in 2008.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has announced that it is to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in New Delhi, India in January 2007. Named Yokohama India, the new company will initially operate as a tyre sales and marketing company. However, in the future, it is planned to become Yokohama’s local headquarters in India for coordinating any future expansion of business such as manufacturing tyres and marketing automotive hoses and sealants. It will have a start-up capitalisation equivalent to approximately 50 million yen (334,468 euros).
With a name like Eurotire it might sound surprising that Eurotire Inc has barely been present in the Western European market before now, despite having production capacity on the continent. However, Eurotire Inc. (which shouldn’t be mistaken for the Dutch tyre wholesaler Euro-Tyre) operates its trading operations from an office in Chicago (Illinois/USA), manufacturing its OTR tyres in a factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk. The company was founded in 2001 but didn’t sell its first OTR tyres with the Eurotire brand name until 2005.
(Akron/Tire Review – FT) Groupe Michelin is aiming to lower its production costs in Europe and North America by an estimated 20 per cent as it clamps down on inefficient development and manufacturing processes ahead of next year’s expected sharp downturn in the global truck market.
(Akron/Tire Review) Portland-based Tire Factory has hired Anthony Showen as its new chief operations officer. Showen joins Tire Factory with more than 15 years of experience in operations and manufacturing. Tire Factory is a marketing group with some 180 retail locations in 11 western US states.
Chinese manufacturers want to and, in fact, already are benefiting from strong international demand for OTR tyres. One company that follows these lines very closely is the China Noble OTR Tyre Co., Ltd. When at the turn of the century it was becoming more evident that there was going to be a strong growth on the profitable OTR tyre market, Noble Tyre decided to jump on the bandwagon. The company’s co-founder Sky Zhuang said in an interview with Tyres & Accessories that this was the time when Noble decided to change its production plans. The company used to produce truck tyres and then changed over to the production of OTR tyres and thus invested considerable amounts of money from 2001 onwards.
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With unit sales of 7.06 million expected for 2006, a domestic replacement market share of 26 per cent and thriving export sales, no wonder Lassa producer Brisa is expanding its manufacturing and warehousing headquarters. As Brisa (Bridgestone Sabanci Tyre Manufacturing and Trading Inc) continues the $176 million production expansion programme it started at its Izmit plant in Turkey in 2004, Tyres & Accessories went to see how the plans are developing and visit some of the company’s retail outlets in Istanbul.
Bridgestone South Africa has introduced a new ‘Super’ range of the company’s well known Firestone HP3000, PSD3000 and UT3000 steel cord radial truck tyres. According to Bridgestone SA vice president of sales and marketing, Johnny Kuroki, the new range is much improved despite the fact that there is no change in external appearance. Allegedly, the changes are the result of ongoing research and development and the range incorporates Bridgestone’s latest design and manufacturing technology.
Leading earthmover tyre specialist OTR Tyres Ltd, has just installed the largest bead to bead fully automated tubeless remould earthmover tyre press in Europe at their factory near Alfreton, Derbyshire. The company reports that the new equipment weighs in at over 75 tonnes and, following installation at OTR’s Somercoates headquarters, is ready to produce massive 2700 R49 tyres. OTR has been supplying, servicing and retreading EM tyres for more than 25 years, but the current shortage of earthmover tyres has seen the company invest over £750,000 on the latest equipment, much of it designed by OTR to suit customer demand.
Cooper has notified workers at the company’s Texarkana plant of its intention to cut 400 – 500 jobs, switching the factory to a “flex” facility. Local newspapers are reporting that the factory will go to a “five-day, three-crew schedule during the second quarter of 2007.” As a result production is expected to drop 30 per cent. Production will then be decreased a further 15 per cent in 2008.
(Akron/Tire Review) The downturn in the North American tyre industry has begun taking its toll on suppliers. Performance Fibers, a leading supplier of polyester fibres for tyres, is idling its polyester fibre production at its Scottsboro, Alabama, facility. The company said the move was “due to slowing demand in North America caused by U.S. tyre manufacturing cutbacks, high raw material costs and other factors.”
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