North America
Titan Tire will utilise the former Goodyear plant in Union City, Tennessee to produce and redistribute materials to other company facilities. Tire Review shares that Titan Tire chairman Bill Campbell told local media that the plant’s operation – polyester and blending rubber and steel strands used in tyre belts – will create 300 jobs by the end of 2012.
In his 24 January State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama claimed the country’s trade cases against China have made a difference. Singling out a particular sector, Obama said “over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tyres.” Words that should, on the face of it, bring cheer to the US tyre industry.
Mitas has cured the first test tyre at its new Charles City, USA facility, which is currently in the testing phase. “Mitas can make tyres in Iowa,” said Pavel Charvat, president and plant director. “This test tyre is the first tyre produced by Mitas on the American continent. Now, Mitas is tweaking the machinery, streamlining processes and training workers for the Charles City plant to be ready for serial production in April.” The exact date of the official opening of the plant and start of serial production will be announced in due course.
Motorists seeking fuel efficient tyres in North America will soon discover a new name attached to Firestone tyres – Fuel Fighter. Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO) has revived the company trademark, which was first used in 1978, and is already affixing it to lower rolling resistance original equipment tyres. The tyre maker says selected replacement market fitments will be introduced in the near future.
Bosch’s Automotive Aftermarket division has agreed to buy the Service Solutions business of SPX Corporation, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The deal, valued by the company at 1.15 billion dollars (roughly 883 million euros), was signed in New York City on 23 January 2012. SPX Service Solutions develops, manufactures and sells diagnostic and service tools, workshop equipment, and software for the global automotive aftermarket. The deal follows Bosch's earlier takeover of Taiwan-based Unipoint, which supplies starters and alternators, and a series of management personnel appointments in the UK.
Tire Review reports that Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has begun moving tyre production equipment out of its Findlay, Ohio, tyre plant. The US magazine reports that late last week the tyre maker was moving the equipment, even as the 1,050 union workers there continued picketing outside of the plant, where they have been locked out since 28 November.
Continental Tire the Americas has announced a price increase on all of its replacement market commercial truck tyres, reports Tire Review. The increase of up to 9 per cent impacts Continental, General and AmeriSteel brand commercial truck tyres sold in the US, and will come into effect on 15 February.
Cooper Tire & Rubber’s fears of concurrent production stoppages at its two major US plants have been allayed with the reaching of a tentative agreement for workers at its Texarkana facility. The tyre maker says it reached the four-year labour agreement with the United Steelworkers union shortly before the current contract expired on 20 January. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending presentation to union members during the course of this week.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s contract with United Steelworkers at its plant in Arkansas expires at midnight tonight, with no indication of what may occur after the contract is up, reports Tire Review. Cooper locked out 1,050 workers at its Findlay, Ohio plant after contract talks stalled there, but has yet to comment about the Texarkana negotiations.
Hankook Tire says its global sales last year reached record levels. The Korean company’s tyre sales in 2011 amounted to KRW 6.484 trillion (£3.7 billion), a 20.9 per cent year-on-year increase. Yet thanks to steep rises in raw material prices this bumper sales year was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in operating profit – in 2011 this reached KRW 566.3 billion (£325.1 million), a decline of 8.8 per cent on the previous year.
Direct negotiations between Cooper Tire and the United Steelworkers union regarding Cooper’s Findlay plant broke down late last year, yet the union has found other means of communicating its position. Tire Review reports that last weekend the USW held a “day of action” that involved protest at numerous tyre retailers that sell Cooper products. The union distributed information about “Cooper Tire's unfair and illegal lockout” of workers at the plant.
Michelin North America has opened registrations for the 2013 Michelin Challenge Design competition and announced that this latest round will address weight reduction through design – a subject the tyre maker says is “becoming a new battleground in the struggle for increasing fuel efficiency.” Participants in the 2013 Michelin Challenge Design, which is titled ‘Half! Lightweight with a Passion’, have been set the task of exploring lightweight vehicle development by designing a family vehicle.
During a press conference at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Michelin North America’s recently appointed chairman and president Pete Selleck introduced the tyre maker’s latest product for a North America still feeling the effect of what some have dubbed the “Great Recession”. Called the Defender, the new passenger car range has been described by Selleck as a “product that meets the demands of Americans who are enduring difficult economic times and are insisting on top value for their money in a way not seen for decades.”
We are told that we are living in an age of austerity and belt-tightening, but this has not stopped Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announcing that 2011 was a record year for sales of the luxury marque. 3,538 cars were sold globally during the year, a 31per cent increase on the 2010 total of 2,711 cars. The figure represents the best sales result in the company's 107-year history; the previous record of 3,347 cars having been set in 1978 during the Silver Shadow II era.
The Range Rover Evoque has been named the 2012 North American Truck of the Year. The announcement, which was made at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, saw the Evoque triumph over tough competition from the BMW X3 and the Honda CR-V. The judging panel of senior US automotive journalists chose the Evoque as the winner after reviewing it against its competitors in six key categories: value for the dollar, innovation, handling, performance, safety and driver satisfaction.
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