North America
(Akron/Tire Review) Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. reported that operating and net income increased 26.4 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively, for the first three quarters of its 2005 fiscal year. Sales in North America rose compared to previous years, according to Toyo, and OE and replacement sales in Japan also increased due to rising vehicle production and higher demand for winter tyres in the country.
At 686.5 million euros, Nokian Tyres’ net sales in 2005 were 13.8 per cent higher than 2004’s figure of 603.3 million euros. The operating profit was virtually static at 115.8 million euros (115.6 m) and the net result was up over 11 per cent to 82.2 million euros (73.8 m). Nokian said that growth in the European passenger car tyre market was slower than expected, with sales of winter tyres in the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe beginning exceptionally late, thus shortening the sales season. The strongest growth was experienced in Russia, Eastern Europe and North America, with sales of new cars growing significantly in Russia.
(Akron/Tire Review) Continental Tire North America (CTNA) announced plans to invest $14 million to install a new, state-of-the-art mixer in its Mt. Vernon, Illinois. tyre plant.
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) Michelin North America (MNA) plans to spend some $26 million on improvements to its Greenville, South Carolina, passenger and light truck/SUV tyre plant. The capital program will boost capacity there by 20 per cent, said MNA.
Bridgestone Corp’s full-year 2005 figures show that the company’s net profit surged 58 per cent last year to 180.7 billion yen (£877 million, 1.283 billion euros). In the 12 months ended 31 December annual sales rose 11 per cent to 2.69 trillion yen (£13.072 billion, 19.123 billion euros). The majority of the corporation’s turnover came from its tyre business, which contributed 2.156 trillion yen (£10.474 billion, 15.311 billion euros) a 12 per cent increase on the 1.931 trillion it generated in 2004.
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has named four truckers as finalists in its annual North America Highway Hero Award. The winner will be announced at next month’s Mid-American Truck Show in Louisville, Kentucky, Mar. 22-24. “We are indebted to truck drivers across the United States and Canada who keep America rolling,” said Steve McClellan, Goodyear’s vice president for commercial tire systems. “In this, the Goodyear Highway Hero Award’s 23rd year, it was especially difficult to select just four truck drivers who placed themselves in harm’s way to save someone else.”
Goodyear has reported a fourth quarter net loss of $51 million for 2005, compared with the previous year period’s net income of $125 million. This year’s lower result was put down to losses caused by the sale of the company’s farm tyre unit. Despite the losses the company recorded sales of $4.9 billion in the fourth quarter and a full-year sales record of $19.7 billion. According to the company, sales benefited from improved pricing and product mix and higher volume in the international tyre businesses, while the effect of currency translation reduced sales by approximately $107 million in the quarter.
(Akron/Tire Review) Continental Tire North America (CTNA) has announced a price increase of up to 6 per cent on all of its medium truck, heavy truck and OTR tyres, effective 1 March. The increase covers all Continental, General, Semperit and private brand commercial tires produced by the company. The increase, said the company, was due to raw material and operating costs.
(Akron/Tire Review) Marangoni Tread North America said it has completed expansion at its Nashville, Tennessee, tread rubber plant, effectively doubling capacity at the facility.
(Akron/Tire Review) Ford Motor Co. has been ordered to pay a rollover accident victim $29 million. The case involved a 22-year-old Texas woman who was left partially paralyzed when a Firestone ATX on her 1999 Mazda Navajo failed and the vehicle rolled over.
(Akron/Tire Review) As expected, United Steelworkers officials in Canada and the US reacted bitterly to the news that Michelin North America (MNA) was planning to close its 44-year-old broadline tyre plant in Kitchener, Ontario,
“It is outrageous that the company has never discussed alternatives with the union and simply dropped a bomb on the whole city,” said Wayne Fraser, USW’s Ontario/Atlantic director. “It is a mean-spirited, terrible way to treat workers, their families and the whole community.”
SmarTire Systems Inc has announced that Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Truck Corporation company, will include the SmarTire’s active TPMS as an option for new and existing fire-fighting vehicles. Pierce Manufacturing is North America’s leading manufacturer of fire and safety apparatus.
Michelin North America (MNA) has announced that it will close its Kitchener, Ontario, tyre plant in July with the loss 1100 jobs. Michelin cited overcapacity in its broadline products as the reason for the closure.
The news comes six months after the manufacturer closed its Poitiers, France, plant with the loss of 500 jobs and is believed to be part of a global cost-cutting programme. “We believe that Michelin will accelerate restructuring measures in coming quarters, using the opportunity of the progressive attrition of one third of their workforce (or 25,000 people) in Western Europe and North America in coming years,” Deutsche Banks analysts said in a report shortly after the news broke.
(Akron/Tire Review) As Michelin North America (MNA) prepares to pour $80 million into expanding truck tyre production at its Waterville, Nova Scotia, plant, the recent national elections in Canada threaten to derail the plan, according to reports by CBC.
As part of the expansion deal, the Liberal Party-led Nova Scotia government committed to giving MNA some $9.4 million in interest free loans. With the Conservative Party now in control, there are questions whether the loan offer will be met.
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