Michelin Archives - Page 303 of 323 - Tyrepress

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.

Tag Archive for: Michelin

Scottish Plant To Manufacture New Michelin Tyre

Michelin’s Dundee plant is to manufacture the new Michelin Energy 3 tyre being launched this week. This is good news for the workers at the Baldovie plant. The future of the plant had recently been the subject of speculation as Michelin moved production to cheaper labour cost centres in Eastern Europe. However the announcement of the selection of Dundee to manufacture the new tyre brings a boost in confidence. Plant manager, Trish Bailey said, ” This is a very positive signal for the Dundee factory going into the future. The new tyre is at the very heart of the Michelin range and we are going to play a very important role at the centre of its production. This will contribute to job security for the workers in Dundee.”

3rd February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

More Cuts At Goodyear

The Akron Beacon Journal (ABJ) reports that Goodyear plans to cut 15 per cent of its North American tyre production capacity and move production to low cost centre countries. The source was an internal company newsletter distributed to employees on Wednesday.

30th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin To Buy 10 Per Cent Of Hankook

Michelin and Hankook have signed a partnership agreement, involving co-operation in R&D, manufacturing and distribution. Hankook will be licensed to produce Michelin’s PAX run-flat technology as part of the agreement. Michelin will take a 10 per cent stake in the Korean company, which, based on the share price when the deal was signed, is estimated to be worth just over US$ 33 million. Shares in Hankook rose almost five per cent on the news, nearly four times better than the market in general.

28th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Eco Award For Michelin

Michelin’s Energy range of tyres was named “Eco Product Of The Year” at the Fleet Excellence Awards, held in London in January. The tyres polled over 25 per cent of the votes in the category, with votes coming from readers of EcoFleet, Fleet Week and Fleet Management magazines.

28th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

“Michelin – The BMW In The Tyre Industry”

Business newspapers in France and England are commenting on a paper from the french analysts Gaetan Toulemonde and Alexis Boyer both from DB Global Equities are recommending Michelin shares as a clear “buy”. The share price – at about 31 Euros at present – has, according to the analysts, the potential to rise to 50 Euros within 12 months. Michelin is seen by them as “the BMW in the tyre industry” with strong brands and an excellent brand strategy. It is expected that Michelin will announce in a press conference at the end of February a turnover for 2002 of about 15.7 bn Euro and an operating profit of 1.1 bn Euro. For this year the company is aiming for a turnover of more than 17 bn Euro and an operating profit of more than 1.2 bn Euro. The stock capitalisation at present is 4.6 bn Euro.

21st January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Fires 700 In Akron (Update)

Although reductions in staff had been expected, the news item still fell like a bombshell: Goodyear, the tyre manufacturer, is sending more than 700 salaried staff home, 350 of these from the company headquarters in Akron, Ohio, alone. The press releases on the subject refer to a "restructuring", holding that the move was necessary to strengthen attempts to accelerate Goodyear's turnaround. With this measure, it is said, Goodyear can remain competitive, and CEO Keegan even demands something like a "winners' attitude" from the remaining associates. This may go down well in America, yet to the ears of staff hit by the cuts, who have not been charged with having done anything wrong, it must sound almost cynical. Meanwhile, Thursday January 16th , Akron witnessed moving scenes among staff. For one thing, no one expected such serious staff cuts; and for another, it looked as if someone had simply gone through the ranks with a rake, plucking out staff members who never even dreamed of being dismissed. The entire proceeding bears a certain handwriting and leads one to suspect that top and higher-echelon management made the decisions more or less on their own, and that middle management, presumably was not involved in the matter and now lives in fear of a loss of functionality. In the end, the work to be done has neither gone away nor even lessened. Instead, it must be carried out by the employees still holding their positions.

20th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

RFID First For Michelin

As reported in T&A RFID tyre identification systems are about to become an element of tyre production and management. After testing on truck and earthmover tyres, Michelin has begun fleet testing of Radio Frequency Identification tagging on passenger car and light truck tyres. The technology allows the tyre identification number to be associated with the vehicle identification number (VIN) making the tyres uniquely identifiable with an individual vehicle, telling when and where the tyre was made, maximum inflation pressure, tyre size, etc.. The ability to identify and track individual tyres through their life cycle has attractions for tyre management services, but ultimately may have applications in the control of the tyre life cycle, including retreading and recovery.

15th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company Limited: Double Coin

Along with the dawn of the 21st century, Shanghai has very quickly become the international economic trading capital of China. The city is the showcase of reform, increasingly attracting foreign investment in new business enterprises. Just outside the city centre is the industrial district of Min Hang and this is home to China’s largest tyre producer, Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company Limited.The Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company was incorporated on 4th July 1992. It was restructured from the two oldest tyre manufacturing plants in China, both having a history stretching back over seventy years, the Ta Chung Hua Rubber factory and the Tsen Tai Rubber factory. In the early 1930s these two tyre producers first established the brand names Double Coin and Warrior. In September 1998 a joint venture was agreed with First Tractor Group of China to produce agricultural tyres, expanding the existing capacity by nearly 50 per cent to 900,000 tyres and consolidating its access to the agricultural market. In the same year the company completed a $95 million US dollar expansion programme at the Min Hang factories. Weak domestic demand and the Asian crisis did see a downturn in profits as the decade came to an end, at the same time, selling prices were cut by ten per cent in order to compete with some foreign, and particularly South Korean, tyres. This was a setback, but no more than that. The company has shown itself to be extremely perceptive and very determined.Within the Shanghai Tyre Company today there are three principal tyre producing factories. An all steel radial truck tyre plant manufacturing the Double Coin brand, and a passenger and light truck tyre radial factory producing the Warrior brand; this plant has been a joint venture with Michelin since March 2001. Finally, a bias-ply plant manufacturing passenger, truck, a massive range of agricultural, off-road, industrial and motorcycle tyres in a total of over 350 specifications. The company is the 15th biggest tyre producer in the world, employing over 11,000 people.

9th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear PAX System On Show

A concept car fitted with a Goodyear PAX system will be one of the vehicles on show at the North American Auto Show, to be held at Detroit later this month. The tyre, resulting from the joint venture with Michelin to develop the PAX system, is one of more than two dozen concept tyres that Goodyear will be highlighting at car shows during 2003. Concept tyres are more than just a bit of fun – Goodyear’s Aquatred, which had a deep, circumferential aquachannel groove, first appeared as a concept tyre in the 1980s. It was redesigned for the road a decade later by tyre engineer Sam Landers, who now heads Goodyear’s runflat development team, which includes the PAX project.

2nd January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Nigerian Standards Organisation Destroys Sub-standard Tyres

The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has recently destroyed large amounts of sub-standard goods in a move designed to emphasis the need to improve the quality of goods traded in Nigeria. The latest batch of goods to be destroyed included second-hand tyres imported and sold by Sanusi Gbenga Tyres Enterprises. According to a spokesman for SON the tyres which were branded Dunlop, Michelin, Continental and Kleber were full of flaws, cracks, blisters, and foreign materials. These, according to him, are unreliable and potential death-traps.

30th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Tops UK OE J D Power Study

The 2002 J D Power UK original equipment tyre satisfaction study has named Michelin as top performer, for the fifth year running. The survey asks more than 2,500 UK motorists to rank their OE tyres in a number of categories; quality/durability, appearance, traction, ride/handling and effect on fuel economy. Michelin achieved top ratings in all sectors. Continental achieved its highest-ever ranking, coming second, scoring well on traction, ride/handling and fuel economy. Goodyear came third, with an index score at the industry average level.

30th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin To Buy Viborg

Michelin has signed an agreement to buy the Viborg distribution chain for the sum of 300 million Euros to add to its Euromaster chain. Viborg operates from 465 sales points in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and The Netherlands and the acquisition will add around 570 million Euros to Michelin’s tyre distribution sales, pushing them over 2 billion Euros. Viborg employs 3,400 staff. The deal is subject to approval by the European Commission.

30th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Analysts Rate Michelin

Ipsos has carried out a study of Michelin’s financial image, asking 251 European financial analysts and 517 French people owning securities. They rated the company under a number of headings and Michelin’s overall performance was generally very good. It scored particularly well in the sections “In financial terms, its forecasts always match its achievements” and “It is particularly capable of reacting to the economic situation”. 80 per cent of the analysts and 56 per cent of the private investors said that they were “confident about the share’s performance” over the next six months.

18th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Martien de Louw New Board Member for Passenger Tires Continental

The Supervisory Board of Continental AG (Hanover) has appointed Martien de Louw (56) to the company’s Executive Board, with responsibility for the Passenger Tire division. Board chairman Manfred Wennemer (55) previously oversaw the division in addition to his other duties. De Louw will take up his new assignment on February 1, 2003.

16th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Ford Rallying Switches To Michelin

Michelin has signed up with Ford to supply tyres for the car manufacturer’s World Rally Championship from 2003. The three-year deal was signed after Ford reached agreement with Pirelli to terminate the existing tyre contract one year early. Ford used Michelin tyres for two seasons following the debut of the Focus WRC in 1999. Said Malcolm Wilson, Team Director of Ford Rallye Sport: “We have enjoyed two successful years with Pirelli and thank them for their support.” He went on: “The World Rally Championship is Ford’s premier global motorsport activity and as such we have exciting plans for the future. We felt it was in the best interests of all parties to utilise this option now and enable us to renew our development links with Michelin.”

16th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors