North America
Bridgestone Americas has increased daily production at its WarrenCounty truck tyre factory in Tennessee by 900 tyres. Thanks to a US$36.6 million expansion programme, the plant now produces 9,000 medium truck radials per day. Some 45 new jobs were created with the expansion.
The relationship between Kumho Tire and the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team will continue for a fourth consecutive year. Kumho Tire USA has renewed its status as “Official Tire of the Los Angeles Lakers” for the 2013-2014 season; as such, it will be represented at home games on signage and will enjoy increased visibility on the Lakers.com website, which it claims is the “NBA’s most visited team site.”
As part of its efforts to promote, sponsor, and support cultural projects in Italy and around the world, Pirelli has established the ‘Pirelli Visiting Professorship in Italian Studies’ for a five-year term at Princeton University’s Department of French and Italian at Princeton University. The professorship’s stated aim is to support the dissemination of the study of Italian history and culture through new media and technology within Italian studies.
Although Bridgestone’s new passenger car radial factory in Vietnam has yet to enter operation, the tyre maker has announced the plant’s first capacity increase. An additional 17.9 billion yen (£113.9 million) will be invested to further raise capacity to 49,000 tyres a day by the second half of 2017. This further growth will see the plant’s workforce expand from approximately 1,900 employees in the first half of 2016 to around 3,800 some 18 months later.
Goodyear has reshuffled its global leadership resulting in a new head of the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) business unit. Darren R. Wells, who up till now has acted as the company’s global CFO has been named president of Goodyear EMEA. Arthur de Bok, currently president of this business, will move into the new role of senior vice president, responsible for driving standardized and integrated sales and marketing processes across Goodyear.
In North America, Michelin Retread Technologies has introduced an all weather traction retread, optimised for severe winter conditions. The Michelin XDS 2 Pre-Mold drive tyre retread, according to the company, can provide a 10 per cent improvement in tread life over the XDS Pre-Mold.
Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) has named Robert Harrelson as its new vice president of human resources and administration. With his appointment, Harrelson will be responsible for the integration of human resources strategies, plans and programs across all of YTC’s North American operations. Harrelson replaces Rex Simpson, who retired in September.
Just over a month after the ratification of a new three-year contract covering workers at BFGoodrich’s Tuscaloosa tyre factory in the US, a statement issued by parent company Michelin North America has outlined a number of layoffs that will take place at the plant.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has announced that its stockholders voted to approve its pending merger with a wholly-owned subsidiary of India’s Apollo Tyres, with more than 74 per cent of Cooper’s outstanding common shares voted in favor of the transaction. Approximately 78 per cent of Cooper’s outstanding common shares were voted, with more than 48 million shares voted in favor of the merger, representing approximately 96 per cent of Cooper’s voted shares.
Effective September 2013, Bob Tate has been appointed Midwest sales manager for Trelleborg Agricultural and Forestry Tires in North America. Prior to joining Trelleborg, Tate’s tyre experience included work with other major tyre manufacturers and distributors in North America both in sales and marketing.
Despite the dangers involved, texting while driving is perfectly legal in at least ten US states. Yet the practice has many opponents, including Goodyear Tire & Rubber, who today is sending out the blimps to spread an anti- texting and driving message. The messages carried by the three Goodyear blimps today promote ‘It Can Wait’, a US-wide education and awareness campaign encouraging drivers never to text while behind the wheel.
The Zeetex tyre brand launched a new website on Thursday 12 September 2013. According to the company, the site has been “aesthetically upgraded, is user friendly and boasts of enhanced functionality and dynamic tools”. The goal appears to have been to create a “visually appealing, polished and professional website – which also offers region-specific capabilities.”
It isn’t currently available on this side of the pond, but in the US Michelin’s Tweel has been available for almost a year and is expanding its collection of accolades. In April the airless tyre won a Silver Edison Award and now it has been named one of the 2013 contractors’ top 40 new products by publication Equipment Today.
British firm Trax JH Ltd, the second largest wheel balance weight manufacturer in Europe, has been selected to supply wheel weights for the new Ford Transit to be built in Kansas City, USA. Widely known in Europe, the Transit will be new to North America and is expected to be sold as the “T” series. The model will be launched in 2014.
Deutsche Bank’s decision to downgrade its advice rating for Bridgestone shares from “buy” to “hold” on 12 September resulted in a 1.4 per cent fall in the Japanese tyre manufacturer’s share price to 3,430 yen in response to the report.
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