North America Archives - Page 167 of 173 - Tyrepress

North America

Posts

Bridgestone Is Running Ahead Of Competition In The USA

The year 2000 tyre recall, with all its consequences and financial difficulties, is more or less over. Sales in North America are strong, plus the performance of the Firestone brand has been stabilised, while the Bridgestone brand managed a growth of 30%, said John Lampe, CEO of Bridgestone/Firestone Americas Holding Inc. yesterday on TV. The fact that Lampe (who has turned out to be a charismatic leader by virtue of his tough battle with his biggest customer Ford, admired by all Bridgestone/Firestone employees in America) appeared on TV this week is another blow for the morale of Goodyear people. Last week they were told by CEO Gibara and his successor from the 1st of January next year, Keegan, that the Corporation has lost market share and has been unable to produce good results on its home market so far. This is forcing the company into the next round of restructuring and cost saving measures. According to Gibara the company is no longer able to pay the health costs at the same high rates as in the past, but has to reduce these costs immediately. This is a consequence, said Gibara, of fierce competition. Employees also fear that the company might lay off thousands more associates in order to reduce costs.

11th October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear GB Sells Wolverhampton Site

Goodyear Great Britain has sold its Wolverhampton manufacturing site to Birmingham-based St. Modwen Developments Limited and entered into a 10-year, extendable lease-back agreement which will enable production to continue. Financial details were not revealed. Wolverhampton was Goodyear’s first factory outside North America, opened in 1927. Production has fallen due to lack of competitiveness and clerical jobs have been relocated to the new HQ at Tyrefort in Birmingham. The sale/lease arrangement allows production to continue and for Goodyear to release value from the 88.6 acre site.

8th October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Hearings Begin in Texas 15-Passenger Van Rollover Case

The first 15 seat passenger van tyre related roll-over case has begun at Wichita Falls, Texas. This is the first case to come to court since the NHTSA issues an advisory about the vehicles in April 2001. The first hearing will establish the validity of expert testimony. The defendants are DaimlerChrysler Corp, Michelin North America (Canada) Inc, Michelin North America Inc, and Michelin Americas Research and Development Corporation. The case arose after the alleged tread separation of a Michelin tyre which is claimed to have caused the vehicle to roll over several times resulting in four deaths.

1st October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone US Executive Appointment

Bridgestone Firestone Americas Holding Inc. has appointed Mark Emkes (49) as chairman, president and chief executive of Bridgestone Firestone North America, effective from Monday. Mr. Emkes has been with the company for 26 years and most recently headed up Bridgestone Firestone’s business in Latin America. He succeeds Isao Togashi, who has returned to Japan as head of global manufacturing for the Bridgestone Corporation.

13th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyota “Will Build Fifth Plant In US”

Toyota President Fujio Cho has said that the company will need to build a fifth factory in the US if things go as planned in North America. The company wants to sell two million vehicles annually in the US by 2005 and is aiming at a 15 per cent share of the US market by 2010 – its current share is almost 10 per cent. In addition to the four existing US plants, Toyota has a factory in Canada.

9th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Voluntary Recalls At Continental Tire North America

Continental Tire North America today announced a voluntary safety recall of 595,000 of its Continental P275/60R17 ContiTrac AW and General Grabber AW P275/60R17 tyres. Consumers will receive free replacements. The tyres involved have DOT codes from 109 to 4400 and were produced between March 1999 and October 2000 and fitted as original equipment on 106,701 2000-model year and certain 2001-model year two-wheel-drive Ford Expedition and two-wheel-drive Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles. Approximately 60,000 of the tires are in the replacement market.”The voluntary recall we are announcing today shows how Ford and Continental early warning/quality systems work together and why we are at the forefront of testing, data analysis and responsiveness,” said Mark Sowka, vice-president Original Equipment, Continental Tire North America.

20th August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Group to Expand Global Production Capacity

Bridgestone Corporation has announced that it and its subsidiaries will expand their collective production capacity worldwide. It also announced that the Bridgestone Group will realign the geographical distribution of production capacity for different kinds of products. Bridgestone and its subsidiaries will invest approximately 250 million dollars in the production expansion and realignment, according to the announcement. The moves are measures to cope with the shift toward larger sizes of passenger car tyres in the industrialised nations and the growing demand for commodity-grade tyres in the newly industrialising economies of Asia and elsewhere.

14th August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Good First Half Results For Michelin – “Challenging” Next Six Months Forecast

Michelin has released its first half figures. Compared with 1H 2001, turnover is up 1.4 per cent to 7.8 billion Euros and operating profits up 16 per cent to 569.6 million Euros. Net profits were down 31.2 per cent to 254.1 million Euros, but the figures for 1H 2001 included a sale of Peugeot shares; when these are factored out of the equation, net profits for 1H 2002 rose 279 per cent. Much of the credit for the results goes to Michelin’s restructuring programme and debt has been reduced by one billion Euros, with operating margins improving one point to 7.3 per cent of net sales. Raw material costs declined by 6 per cent over the period. Looking ahead, Finance Director Michel Rollier described the second half of the year as “challenging and uncertain”, particularly the economic crises in South America. Michelin’s shares rose nearly 4 per cent on publication of the results.

31st July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Chooses Exel In USA

In North America, Goodyear has chosen Exel Logistics as its lead logistics provider. Goodyear is keen to improve fill rates to dealers, particularly its independent dealer network, and sees Exel (with whom the company has been working since 1996) as the means of streamlining the supply chain.

24th July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Record Second Quarter For Cooper

Cooper Tire & Rubber has published its results for the second quarter, which showed a Q2 record net income of $39 million; an increase over last year’s 2Q figure of 113 per cent. Sales were up one per cent to $836 million and Cooper managed to reduce debt by $29 million. Sales for the first six months totalled $1.6 billion; a 4 p.c. rise over 1H, while net income was up 196 p.c. over the same period last year, at $65 million. 2Q tyre operation sales were $414 million ($433 m 2Q 2001) with operating profit up 39 p.c. to $37 million. The company’s North America unit volumes for 1H have risen by almost 5 p.c., against a decline for the industry of around 2 p.c.

19th July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Upgrade For Bridgestone

Goldman Sachs Japan has upgraded Bridgestone to Recommended List from Market Outperformer. This is in view of in view of the company’s success in expanding sales of the Bridgestone brand in North America, unexpectedly swift earnings recovery at its US subsidiary Bridgestone/Firestone Americaand prospects that stock-price valuations may revive as litigation risk wanes and North American earnings recover, and only modest exposure to other risks.

4th July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin US Exchanges 30,000 Tyres

30,000 Phantom A/P tyres that Michelin produced between 1997 and 1999 can, in unusual and extreme situations, fail before the profile is under the limit. These tyres can now be exchanged free of charge as Michelin North America announced a voluntary and absolutely precautionary issue, clarifying that this is not a recall.

27th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin OE Decision Affects US Business

Michelin recently took the decision to abandon OE orders from GM Europe as the company wants to concentrate on OE business in the more lucrative high performance segment. Michelin said that its North American business with GM is not affected (Michelin is GM’s second largest tyre supplier, with the Uniroyal, BFGoodrich and Michelin brands) but it now appears that GM North America does not want to consider Michelin for future OE projects.

18th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Settlement Reached In Bandag/Michelin Litigation

Michelin North America, Inc., Michelin Retread Technologies, Inc., and Bandag, Incorporated, announced that they have reached a settlement in their ongoing litigation. As a result of the agreement all parties have been dismissed from the litigation. Michelin and Bandag have agreed to dismiss all financial claims against all parties. This agreement brings to a close the trial in the United States District Court in Des Moines, Iowa, that began May 13, 2002.

22nd May 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Auto Industry To Recover After Next Year – Report

Auto industry consultants Autopolis have released their latest report on the global automobile industry. It predicts a decline this year, with vehicle sales falling in the three largest markets (North America, Europe and Japan). A global 5 per cent decline (2.6 million vehicles) is predicted this year and a further 2.5 per cent decline the year after. However, Autopolis predicts that the global car and truck market will return to year 2000 record levels (54.9 million vehicles) by 2005 and, by 2010, demand will exceed 61 million vehicles.

8th May 2002/by Tyrepress Editors