Upon its launch in European markets three years ago, Continental’s new tyre pressure monitoring system was only available as a retrofit option. The availability of ContiPressureCheck has now been extended to tyres shipped straight from the factory with sensors already installed. Continental is using the name ‘iTire’ to distinguish these products from standard tyres.
In the aftermath of June’s Brexit referendum, more than a few voices called for the UK government to reconsider its decision to leave the European Union. And while the new Prime Minister is adamant that “Brexit means Brexit,” we retain the option of later rejoining the club should we wish to. The same applies within the tyre industry, as we recently witnessed with Germany’s Continental AG. More than a decade after its ‘Agrexit’, the company will soon once again produce agricultural tyres under its main Continental brand name.
Over a number of years, Czech tyre maker Mitas a.s. has distanced itself in steps from the Continental brand it’s produced under licence since 2004. Three years ago the company announced an extension of this licence until 2019, however recent events have spurred Continental AG to reclaim its agricultural tyre brand ahead of this date. Continental has now announced a €49.9 million investment in its own agricultural tyre business, and the company will begin producing agricultural radials next year.
Back when Continental’s facility in Korbach, Germany celebrated its centenary in 2007, most people assumed the site’s best days were already behind it. At the time, the company aimed to relocate a greater proportion of its production to lower cost countries, and the onset of the financial crisis a year or so later did nothing to increase the attractiveness of locations such as Korbach. Therefore it came as a surprise when Continental announced a €45 million investment to set up a “factory within a factory” at the Korbach plant. On 7 June this facility, the High Performance Technology Center (HPTC), entered operation.
Continental has confirmed its intention to erect a new commercial vehicle tyre factory in the USA, and while no start of construction date has been announced the company says it expects to break ground in the next few months “in cadence with market demands.” The tyre maker anticipates that in the long-term an investment of approximately US$1.4 billion will go into the project.
Continental’s acquisition of A-Z Formen- und Maschinenbau GmbH last year brought one of the world’s most skilled tyre mould manufacturers in-house. Now the German tyre maker has announced its intention to expand capacity for extremely detailed tread designs at the A-Z factory in Runding, Bavaria this year through the construction of a new foundry. This project will be funded by a €6 million investment in A-Z Formen- und Maschinenbau. Continental says the investment will better prepare it for the increasingly complex nature of tyre moulds and their production, and will lead to 20 new jobs being created at Runding site.
Tyre maker and automotive systems supplier Continental is to serve as a key partner to a four-year global campaign being rolled out to promote awareness of leading vehicle crash avoidance technologies in major emerging markets. The firm’s Tire and Chassis & Safety divisions are supporting the ‘Stop the Crash’ initiative organised by Global NCAP (Global New Car Assessment Programme), the London-based umbrella body of the NCAP organisations that carry out vehicle safety tests around the world. The company also states it will more closely position its Continental tyre brand to the campaign’s long-term goals.
Continental will reach an important milestone in its research project for the industrialisation of dandelion rubber in tyre production when it tests its first WinterContact TS 850 P with a Taraxagum based tread at its Swedish testing facility. Continental unveiled its first test tyres made from the raw material (the botanical name for dandelion is taraxacum) in a limited series last autumn. The use of the material in its WinterContact TS 850 P takes Continental “an important step closer” to its long-term sustainability goals, reducing its dependence on traditional raw materials.
In late April Continental concluded an investment agreement with the Hefei provincial and local governments in China, and has now unveiled plans to significantly expand its passenger car tyre factory there. Annual production capacity will rise from the current level of 5 million tyres per year to 14 million by 2019. In addition, bicycle tyre production in Hefei will be boosted from around 2 million units per annum to 13 million pieces by 2025.
With the promise of “German engineering and technology”, adapted for local market performance requirements, Continental has launched two premium passenger car tyre lines in the Indian market. The ContiMaxContact MC5 and ContiComfortContact CC5 are being produced at a new, state-of-the-art passenger car and light truck tyre facility at the company’s Modipuram plant. The newly-built facility has an initial capacity of 800,000 tyres per annum, with potential for further expansion.
Continental is gearing up to increase its research and development workforce by 15 per cent at its Púchov site in Slovakia after the official opening of its expanded facility there. The company held an opening ceremony at its new Tires Technology Center today in the presence of Slovak Republic Prime Minster Róbert Fico, Continental Tire Division head Nikolai Setzer and representatives from local management and the workforce. The additional research and development capacity at Púchov was realised through a €7.5 million investment.
More than three years ago, Continental stated that rubber sourced from the Russian dandelion was of “great interest” to the company as a potential substitute for natural rubber in its tyres. It commenced a joint research project with the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology and reported a breakthrough late last year. Now, at Continental’s press conference at the start of the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Germany, Tire division head Nikolai Setzer has introduced the brand under which the company will market its dandelion rubber products.
Yesterday, Continental officially broke ground on its new High Performance Technology Center (HPTC), a new “factory within a factory” at the company’s Korbach plant in Germany. The HPTC is being erected on a 12,000 square metre site and the building is expected to be completed by the end of May 2015, with operations at the completed facility scheduled to begin in July 2016.
While Continental says it will “stay on the ball” regarding its football sponsorship and confirms its intention to place a stronger focus upon sponsoring regional events in future, the tyre and automotive systems manufacturer hasn’t gone so far as saying it will not sponsor the FIFA World Cup 2018, as one German newspaper reported last week.
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