Tyre industry pioneers, Michelin has a long history. Having begun in 1889, Michelin is now the second-largest tyre manufacturer in the world after Bridgestone and larger than both Goodyear and Contineantal.
It was a win for Bridgestone in Qatar as Australia’s Casey Stoner rode his Ducati to victory in the MotoGP season opener. He squeezed out pole position starter Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha during the race’s final laps to take this, his first MotoGP victory.
(Akron/Tire Review) They expected it to happen eventually. It was just a matter of time, industry insiders said. So, it wasn’t a total surprise when Bridgestone Americas Holding (BAH) announced its intent to purchase retread giant Bandag.
Following Goodyear’s announcement that it will increase prices on by 4-5 per cent on 1 April, some analysts have suggested that the rise will more than offset raw material costs. The announcement follows similar moves by other premium manufacturers (namely Michelin and Bridgestone).
Michelin has initiated legal proceedings against the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) with the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. The move sees the French manufacturer, which owns the BF Goodrich brands, request that the 27 February 2007 FIA World Motor Sport Council decision granting Pirelli the exclusive supply of tyres for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 World Rally Championships (WRC) be annulled due to irregularities in the tender process.
(Akron/Tire Review) Michelin North America has updated its Michelin Americas Truck Tires website at www.michelintruck.com. The revised site, said the company, features expanded information on each of its 65 tyre models as well as fuel and weight savings calculators designed to compute potential cost savings information of using X One super wides vs. conventional duals.
(Douglasdale, South Africa/S.A. Treads) A man who first started his tyre career with Michelin 19 years ago as a sales representative and went on to become familiar with every aspect of the business, from the tyre manufacturing process to servicing the commercial sector, marketing and communications, now heads up Michelin Tyres SA.
Michelin announced on March 7 that it will open its first North American retail store, Michelin on Main, not far from the site of its US headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina. The store will offer Michelin branded mobility and lifestyle products, as well as advice on the company’s tyre products. Customers will be able to obtain information on the tyres best suited to their vehicles and then be referred to a local Michelin dealer to complete their purchase.
While Michelin appears confident about maintaining its apparent advantage in the MotoGP tyre war, competitor Bridgestone believes the fight is still too close to call.
With the switch from 990cc to 800cc bikes in 2007 a greater emphasis has been placed upon cornering, with the bikes’ reduced power allowing greater cornering speeds. Michelin has replaced their 16.5-inch front tyre with a 16-inch alternative that permits lighter handling, and this new tyre performed well during February’s qualifying tests in Qatar, with Honda’s Dani Pedrosa achieving the fastest times.
The US agricultural journal Farm Industry News has recognised Michelin’s new Ultraflex Technology as one of the most significant innovations of the past year. The publication presented Michelin Agricultural Tires with a FinOvation Award at a banquet during February’s 2007 Farm Machinery Show held in Kentucky.
An investigation has ruled that neither Michelin nor the company that hired an independent contractor killed at the tyremaker’s Norwood factory in the US are to blame for his death. Neither the national Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the North Carolina Department of Labor found any evidence of neglect or foul play to have occurred during last October’s incident.
The 2007 MotoGP season starts on March 10th with the Grand Prix in Qatar. This year’s calendar has 18 races, one more than 2006. Between Qatar and Valencia on 4 November, the teams will have raced in Turkey, China, USA, Japan, Malaysia and Australia as well as throughout Europe.
Just over a year after Michelin North America announced it would invest $92 million setting up production facilities for its X One wide single tyre in Canada, employees at the Waterville, Nova Scotia plant have produced the factory’s first X One tyre ahead of schedule.
On 27 February the FIA announced that Pirelli had won the tender to be the official tyre supplier to the 2008, 2009 and 2010 FIA World Rally Championships. The decision came as something of a surprise for two reasons: Pirelli withdrew from WRC, citing “marketing reasons” only one season earlier; and secondly because the decision means Group Michelin no-longer supply either of the two leading four wheel motorsport series.
Michelin has launched the first steer axle truck tyre in its range to feature InfiniCoil architecture, one of the key innovations of Michelin Durable Technologies. The 315/60 R 22.5 Michelin X Energy XF is available as original equipment in Europe and will be exhibited on Michelin’s stand at the Commercial Vehicle Show. With a load carrying capacity of 7.5 tonnes (the same as a 315/70 R 22.5), this new tyre responds to the demand from vehicle manufacturers seeking tyres that increase the steer axle’s load-carrying capacity.
Pirelli Tyre’s IPO last summer completely failed when the parent company was required to sell about 39 per cent of its tyre division Pirelli Tyre S.p.A. to a group of corporate investors from the banking sector rather than to private shareholders. And it will soon be seen whether these moves have actually more than merely temporarily quenched the parent company’s thirst for money. It appears that the tyre maker’s parent company, Pirelli & C. S.p.A., continues to have problems. Its shareholding in Telecom Italia has always been troublesome and was (and is still) obviously not fulfilling high expectations. Only recently more and higher depreciations had to be integrated into Pirelli’s balance sheet because the stock price of Telecom Italia proved unable to recover. In glaring contrast, however, is Pirelli’s tyre business.
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