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.
In the US, Pirelli has received the top safety award from the Rubber Manufacturers Association for the fourth year in a row, for achieving significant improvements in worker health and safety over the past year. The Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP) award was presented to Pirelli at the RMA’s annual meeting.
Now at a first glance you might think my headline suggests this editorial will be something to do with the fact that Michelin North America (MNA) and Continental Tire North America (CTNA) have thrown their weight behind the tyre-life concept. Car manufacturers Ford and DaimlerChrysler were the first to advise drivers to replace their tyres after six year regardless of tread depth. Bridgestone Firestone North America Tire (BFNAT) followed suit last November. However, that’s all I am going to say on this late-breaking subject here.
Instead I want to talk about another type of maturing. Tyres & Accessories recently came across a report conducted by Plimsoll Publishing that looks at the effect the aging population might have on UK tyre manufacturers and distributors. Apparently 42 per cent of the leaders of the UK’s top 242 tyre companies will be over sixty in the next 5 years and 23 per cent will breach 65 in the same period.
So what’s in store for the so-called baby boomers? Plimsoll’s study looks at the impact these retirement age directors might have on the financial performance and future direction of the companies they run. Collectively the UK top 242 tyre manufacturing and distribution companies are led by only 487 directors, varying in age from 21 to 84 years. Only 13 directors are under 30, while 114 are aged 61 and over.
So is the market as appealing as it was 10 years ago? Now I would like to make it clear that I am not saying there is any kind of negative relationship between the age of directors and performance, but Plimsoll’s analysis reports that 41 per cent of the 242 companies analysed are in clear financial difficulties and 21 per cent of companies failed to make any profit at all last year.
(Akron/Tire Review) Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) honored 63 tyre and rubber manufacturing facilities improving their worker health and safety. RMA’s Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP) Awards were given at RMA’s annual meeting, held 25-27 February.
Fate SAICI is something of an anomaly in South America. While the tyre markets in every other country in South America are led by the regional wings of multinational corporations, Fate is Argentina’s largest tyre producer ahead of Bridgestone Firestone Argentina and Pirelli Neumaticos. Tyres & Accessories asked Fate’s Walter Hack what it is that sets the company apart and learnt of some developments within the company’s product portfolio.
Much has been written about the emerging Indian, Chinese and Russian markets, but what about South America? This continent is full of potential, something that is demonstrated by the fact that all the major players are there (Pirelli, Goodyear and Bridgestone/Firestone being particularly strong) and are already positioning themselves for the next market explosion. However for all its potential, the continent can also be described as tumultuous – at the end of November 2005, for example, Bridgestone/Firestone had to quell a violent dispute at a plant in Venezuela.
Gloucestershire, UK-based, Watts Industrial Tyres has expanded its production facility in Brazil, together with its joint venture partner, Souza Pinto Ind.& Com. De Artefatos De Borrahca Ltda.
Watts and Souza Pinto commenced manufacturing of a limited range of resilient solid tyres in late 2001, and have expanded the facilities product range over the last four years. The initial strategy in setting up the facility was to service the rapidly growing Brazilian market, as well as taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the Mercosur markets. The Brazilian Watts factory and central warehouse is based in Lorena, on the main Rodovia Presidente Dutra highway between Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, and has grown from a 1,300 square metre facility to its new current size of 4,400 square metres.
Delphi Product & Service Solutions has established a joint venture with Roulunds Braking Systems SAS, a leading European supplier of OE and aftermarket automotive friction components. The new company, called Alliance Friction Technologies, has already developed a purpose-built manufacturing facility near New Delhi (India), dedicated to supplying Delphi with OE equivalent quality brake pads for sale throughout Europe and to other countries supplied by Delphi’s European operations.
Figures for European vehicle production rose 8.6 per cent in January. Western Europe posted growth of 1.9 per cent, but production in Central Europe rose by a remarkable 42.4 per cent. There were contrasting performances during the month, with Fiat production up 31 per cent (from a low base) due mainly to the launch of the new Punto. VW production rose 8.6 per cent on the back of Audi, Passat and Golf Plus models. Mercedes output was flat, but Smart production fell 34 per cent. PSA production rose nearly five per cent, but Renault fell 6.4 per cent, despite strong sales of the new Clio.
Speciality tyre manufacturer, GPX International Tire Corporation, has become the first tyre manufacturer to open a mixing warehouse facility in China’s newest free trade zone. The new 140,000 square foot facility (13,000 square metres) is designed to support international trade and is strategically located in North East China’s Tanggu Port. Tanggu is the largest man-made port in China and provides GPX with close access to global shipping lanes. The mixing warehouse is critical in further developing leading-edge solutions for GPX customers around the world. GPX says it expects to start offering tyres through its new mixing facility in the first quarter of 2006.
(Akron/Tire Review) The voluntary tyre recall launched by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. on 13 February includes Cooper, associate and private brand tyres it produced as far back as February 2004, according to documents found on NHTSA’s web site. Cooper itself has issued no public information about the recall.
Of the approximately 288,000 tyres Cooper is recalling, some 183,000 were produced between February 2004 and 21 January 2005. These tyres – predominately designed for light truck/SUV applications – were being recalled due a slow leak that may be caused by a “contaminant in the upper sidewall,” according to an Associated Press report.
Owner Leocadio Alcaide (38) founded his company in 2000 in Alcalá de Guadaíra, on the outskirts of Seville, as a retailer of premium new tyres such as Goodyear, Michelin, Firestone and Dunlop. He also sold Bandag retreads manufactured by a Bandag Dealer in Andalusia and soon realised that opening his own Bandag shop would be an important contribution to the transport sector in the area.
Its not just new tyre manufacturers and retreaders that are benefiting from booming OTR tyre sales. Businesses such as Stahlgruber’s Tip Top division have benefited from the recent increase in demand. The demand for tyre repair systems has multiplied over the last year, export manager Maximilian Spenger says. Today it is an absolute priority for users of OTR tyres everywhere to “keep the tyres going somehow.” At Tip Top’s headquarters near Munich those in charge are reacting quite calmly to the current situation because the market changes did not go unforeseen.
We hear so much about overcapacity in the tyre industry, with too many tyres chasing too few wheels, but this is not the case in all sectors and certainly not in the OTR/Earthmover tyre market, where words and phrases such as “crisis” and “global shortage” are freely bandied about.
Reports suggest that there is little prospect of improvement in the short to medium-term, with the entire global OTR tyre production for at least the next couple of years having already been sold. One prediction, from the UK’s OTR Tyres, forecasts that demand will exceed supply through to 2010.
Fuel prices have been increasing across the board since 1988. Drivers today have to spend more than twice as much per litre of petrol used than at that time. And the trend is set to continue. In fact, the International Energy Agency (IEA, Paris) expects demand for all types of fuel to significantly increase – by as much as 50 per cent over the next 25 years.
So much for the bad news. But there is also good news –chemicals company Degussa AG (Dusseldorf), intensified the work in its Advanced Fillers & Pigments Business Unit aimed at improving the properties of truck and car tyres alike. This work has led to fuel consumption reductions of up to eight per cent – depending on how figures are compared. Based on an average of 150,000 kilometres per truck, this could result in annual fuel savings of approximately 2,500 litres – a substantial amount.
Managers at Pirelli’s Carlisle facility have reportedly told unions that they want to keep workers’ annual pay increase below the rate of inflation. Pirelli’s Wolfgang Meier, who replaces previous UK industrial director John Nixon, is said to have argued that workers must accept lower pay rises to keep the site competitive. He also suggested that some manufacturing functions would have to be outsourced. However, Pirelli representatives downplayed The News & Star coverage, saying that Meier’s comments were taken out of context.
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