Manufacturing Archives - Page 60 of 258 - 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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Apollo invests in Zimbabwe plant – for Vredestein production?

Following the agreement reached between Apollo Tyres and Sumitomo Rubber Industries about the future of the Dunlop brand in Africa, Apollo Tyres South Africa (Pty) Limited has initiated an investment programme at its Dunlop Zimbabwe Limited manufacturing company. The Dunlop Zimbabwe plant in Bulawayo will no longer produce Dunlop tyres and is apparently being tooled up to manufacture the Vredestein brand. Six new presses have been purchased for the Bulawayo plant so far and a further 18 are expected.

8th July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Triangle’s 2013 global summit exemplifies Chinese globalisation ambitions

International News, News

The theme of globalisation loomed large over Chinese tyre manufacturer Triangle’s latest Global Business Summit, held in the China Hall of the older Grand Tower of Pudong, Shanghai’s Shangri-La Hotel. While the chairman of the board Ding Yuhua’s conference starting theme speech riffed on the theme with regard to manufacturing processes, employee base and international trends, the presence of delegates from around the world reinforced the message the world’s 16th largest tyre manufacturer’s message – Triangle suppliers from three continents travelled with Tyres & Accessories to the Shangri-La from Pudong International, to underline a point. In the coming year, Ding Yuhua said that Triangle is seeking to “speed up the transformation and upgrade [its] manufacturing to synchronise with the global economy,” while focusing on the environmental standards Triangle now characterises as part of the “mainstream” in the post-REACH, post-labelling landscape – in China as well as the rest of the world. This involves greater investment in green production technology that he says is yielding a “four per cent increase in energy efficiency yearly”.

5th July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Andrew

Marangoni opens Argentina Ringtread plant

Marangoni Retreading Systems has inauguration a new manufacturing plant in Argentina, in the city of Alvear, Santa Fe. This new plant brings the total number of sites operating around the world and featuring Ringtread lines to five, all part of the Marangoni Group division specialising in pre-cure retreading.

5th July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Starco welcomes Croatian plant into EU

On 1 July, the EU family grew with the addition of more than four million Croatians. Starco has welcomed its colleagues in Croatia into the European Union and says that time has proven the wisdom its decision to invest in the country.

4th July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess opens first Russian facility

Less than a month after inaugurating its 100,000 tonne per annum butyl rubber plant in Singapore and six weeks after launching a new curing bladder facility in Brazil, Lanxess has celebrated the opening of another production site that will serve the tyre and automotive industries. The company’s first facility in Russia, a polymer-bound rubber additives plant operated by its Rhein Chemie subsidiary, officially opened on 4 July, creating around 40 jobs; a second facility at the plant site in Lipetsk, which will produce bladders for use in tyre production, will open in 2016.

4th July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Kenda announces 2013 production capacity increase plans

Kenda Rubber Industrial Co has reported its intention to increase its global production capacity for passenger car tyres by 50 per cent in 2013. The company will manufacture 38,000 units per day by the end of 2013 in order to meet rising market demand, with the increases coming in both its home market of Taiwan and in two Chinese factories. These include the Tianjin factory, which produced its first prototype tyre in May.

2nd July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper acquisition is a game changer – Apollo MD talks to T&A

Company News, International News, News

With the ink still drying on Apollo Tyre’s agreement to purchase Cooper Tire and Rubber, on 27 June Tyres & Accessories met with Apollo vice chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar at the company's new global marketing office in central London in order to get the inside line on the deal, the impending integration and the strategy behind the purchase.

In 2010, Apollo's owners, chairman Onkar Kanwar and vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar, told the world that the company was aiming to break into the global top 10…at least. At the time this announcement was made you could be forgiven for thinking such a proclamation was either an exercise in hyperbole or in corporate goal setting. And why not? There's nothing wrong with aiming high, as many of the world's fastest growing tyre companies are clearly doing. After all, as the saying goes, “he who aims at nothing hits it”.

But with all the speculation that surrounded the company's decision to engage in takeover talks with Cooper at the end of 2012, the fact that the deal has now been agreed arguably isn't as much of a surprise as the speed with which the top 10 goal has been attained. Early indications suggest that the amalgamated Apollo/Cooper will be the seventh largest tyre company on earth. So what’s next? The exclusive club that is dominated and fiercely defended by the big five? Or, as is more likely, a period of integration and consolidation while the dust settles?

1st July 2013/12,345 Comments/by Chris

TAFF Awards 2013 final line-up

The voting process for the 2013 NTDA Tyre & Fast Fit Awards has already begun and ends on 27th September. The big difference this year is that voting is only via the NTDA website (ntda.co.uk/TAFF) and not by post, as in previous years. For the second year running, the TAFF Awards are sponsored by speciality chemicals company Lanxess.

28th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti upgrading Puchov plant, boosting TBR capacity

Continental has confirmed it will invest around €100 million increasing production capacity at its Puchov truck and bus tyre factory in Slovakia, boosting capacity from some 2.6 million tyres a year to over three million tyres. Puchov, Continental’s largest truck and bus tyre production facility within the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, will also receive “extensive upgrades” to machinery and infrastructure in order to achieve maximum production efficiency.

28th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

New PIPCO website and marketing programme

Worldwide-Marketing has launched a new brand and website to expand its international tyre bladders and related products sales programme. The products are manufactured by Polymer Industrial Products, also known as PIPCO. The new PIPCOWorldwide.com site is designed to support the expansion of the company’s global reach with offices in Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, and India. The increase in staff that comes with the move is expected to allow expansion of their turn-up bladder trial program, which has reportedly helped dozens of tyre plants increase their cure rates already.

26th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Kanwar: ‘We see significant growth potential’ at each tyre plant

Apollo Tyres joint chairman Neeraj Kanwar has spoken out in support of keeping and even expanding Apollo and Cooper’s existing manufacturing sites. With the dust still settling following the news of the acquisition of Cooper by Apollo, Kanwar’s comments, which came as part of an interview with Tyres & Accessories, appear to act as a further assurance that the company has no plans to close its manufacturing locations.

25th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Battery manufacturers collaborating on electromobility solutions

Germany’s Robert Bosch GmbH and Japanese firms GS Yuasa International Ltd and Mitsubishi Corporation have agreed to work together on the next generation of high-performance lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are fundamental for future forms of mobility, including plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicles. The companies’ stated aim is to use advanced cell management and progress in electrochemistry and materials to significantly increase energy content. This will reduce weight and space requirements, and increase the range of electric vehicles.

21st June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Brazil investigating tyre dumping claims

In late May, Brazilian tyre industry association the ANIP (Associação Nacional da Indústria de Pneumáticos) reported that the country’s tyre production only increased four per cent during the first four months of 2013, despite a year-on-year growth of 17 per cent within the automotive industry between January and April. ANIP blamed this growth congruence on increased tyre imports, prompting association president Alberto Mayer to comment that many imported tyres were not legal imports, were of a quality below that set out by national accreditation body Inmetro, and avoided the end of life tyre handling fee charged on domestically-produced tyres.

20th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Kumho to introduce RFID on all tyres

In June, Kumho Tire announced a global first – it will place radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags on all tyre products it manufactures. Kumho’s RFID programme is being rolled out as part of the ‘u-IT New Technology Verification Project’ supported by Korea’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency and a key aim of fitting RFID tags is to increase workflow efficiency; furthermore, with the expansion of its RFID-embedded tyres to all product lines, Kumho Tires expects to cut KRW10.4 billion (£5.9 million) in annual logistics, production and quality control costs.

19th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors

Cabot to acquire fully Grupo Kuo carbon black joint venture

Cabot Corporation has announced a new agreement with Grupo Kuo SAB de CV to purchase its remaining 60 per cent equity in the companies’ Mexican carbon black manufacturing joint venture, Nhumo, SA de CV. Cabot will pay $105 million for Kuo’s current shareholding, of which $80 million will be paid upon closing, excluding cash acquired. Cabot says Nhumo’s position as a leading carbon black producer in Mexico will help to strengthen its global carbon black business, and help to meet what it says is a growing demand for carbon black throughout North America. Following the announcement Cabot shares increased 2.9 per cent, and the company said it expected an earnings boost of around $0.15 per share as a result of the acquisition in the 2014 financial year. Extending into the next three years, Cabot estimates that operational synergies could increase earnings per share by $0.05 to $0.10.

18th June 2013/12,345 Comments/by Tyrepress Editors