North America
Kumho Tire USA has issued the 99th individual tyre price hike in the US and Canada this year, planning to raise prices by up to 8 per cent on its passenger, light truck/SUV and medium truck radials tyres, reports Tire Review.
Portland-based independent tyre dealer group Tire Factory has announced record comparable-store sales growth through the third quarter of 2011, reports Tire Review. According to CEO John Kreidel, comparable-store (those stores that have been a member for at last one year) sales were up more than 15 per cent and member purchases were up some 37 per cent year-over-year through three quarters.
United Steelworkers (USW) president Leo Gerard has asked the Obama administration to coordinate an inquiry into the recent agreement between the University of Akron and China’s Triangle Group, reports Tire Review. In a 12 October letter written to Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, Gerard stated: “Polymer research has critical economic and national security applications and the transfer of technology contemplated by this relationship demands strict scrutiny.”
Goodyear is raising prices on OE and replacement medium truck tyres, retreads and retread tread stock by up to 10 per cent as of 1 November, reports Tire Review. The price increase is for the US only, and impacts Goodyear, Dunlop and Kelly brands. It marks the 97th unique price increase announced for the US and Canada this year, the American journal notes.
Hankook Tire reported third quarter 2011 global sales of 1.69 trillion won a 23 per cent increase from the same period last year. The tyremaker’s third quarter operating profit came in a 129.9 billion won.
On October 17, Michelin North America’s Richard Wilkerson handed over the top job in the company to Pete Selleck. US-born Selleck, previously president of Michelin’s Truck and Bus division, returned from his France-based position to take over as chairman and president of Michelin North America after Wilkerson announced his intention to retire. As chairman and president, Selleck assumes responsibility for coordinating all Michelin activities in Canada, Mexico and the United States; Wilkerson remains with Michelin as chairman emeritus.
Campaigning for the next US presidential election is underway, and even candidates’ positions on tyre-related issues are being held up to the light for further examination. One candidate to find this out is Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, who has been criticised by United Steelworkers (USW) International president Leo W. Gerard over inconguencies between current campaign claims and his previous position on Chinese tyre tariffs.
US based private equity fund Transportation Resource Partners, who focuses on investing in growth-oriented businesses in the transportation sector, has entered into a partnership with Tire Group International, Inc. and the McLarty Companies, who are active in the transportation and automotive retail and distribution sectors. While financial details of the deal between the tyre wholesaler, McCarty and the $245 million private equity fund have not yet been disclosed, Tire Group International CEO Tony Gonzalez says he is positive about his company’s joint future with its new partners.
Michelin has introduced a range of online tools for its US market consumers; these new additions to its michelinman.com website, the tyre maker comments, will make “the complicated and somewhat confusing process of tyre buying easier and more enjoyable.” The online tools include the Team Michelin Tire Selector Tool, a tyre selection guide based upon performance preferences rather than the standard year-make-model approach; Team Michelin Experts, which involves “face-to-face” advice from Michelin tyre experts; User Tire Ratings and Reviews, an archive of more than 12,000 user reviews; Tires 101, a resource the company says even non-Michelin tyre owners will find useful; and “Call Me Please”, which enables site users to arrange a call from a Michelin Certified Product Expert to discuss their tyre needs and answer their questions.
CEOs from 11 leading tyre companies have announced results from an international research project studying the potential environmental and health impacts of tyre materials and tyre road wear particles. The research reportedly shows that “there are no adverse effects from inhalation exposures to tire and road wear particles” and “the concentration of tyre and road wear particles in air and sediment were well below toxicity levels.”
The group of tyre CEOs of firms based in Europe, Japan, Korea and North America met outside Washington, DC on 7 October to review the project’s progress and set a forward-looking agenda for continuing research. The group formed the Tire Industry Project (TIP) in 2005.
The US Department of Commerce named the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA, as one of the five recipients of its Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) for 2011. As a result, the trade association will receive US$500,000 in matching funds over the next three years to support US manufacturers that export automotive specialty-equipment products to booming emerging international markets. The grant is intended to stimulate US exports of specialty-equipment products as part of the Administration's National Export Initiative, which aims to double US exports by 2014 in support of several million US jobs.
Tomorrow one of the world’s largest tyre and automotive component manufacturer will celebrate 140 years in the business. On October 8, 1871 nine bankers and industrialists from the German city of Hannover founded Continental-Caoutchouc & Gutta-Percha Compagnie as a joint stock company. The firm began life with joint stock valued at some 300,000 thalers, an amount equating to a present-day purchasing power of approximately 6.3 million euros, and at its first plant in Hannover a workforce of around 200 produced a range of rubber products including hot water bottles, toy dolls and solid tyres for carriages and bicycles.
Prices for Yokohama’s consumer tyre products sold in the US will increase by as much as eight per cent as of November 1. Yokohama Tire Corporation director of sales, Shawn Denlein, says the new prices for its passenger, performance and light truck tyres are being introduced due to “the costs of raw materials, energy and transportation remaining at very high levels.”
Retreaders and retread sellers in the US state of Michigan may be forced to perform the tyre industry equivalent of cleaning up dog doo from the front lawn – even though someone else’s puppy left the mess. A new Bill introduced into the Michigan House of Representatives recommends imposing a US$5.00 fee upon every retreaded tyre sold by a retailer within the state, with the funds generated by this fee used for the “cleanup of roadside waste from deteriorated retread tyres” and other recycling and littler cleanup.
The county of Sumter, South Carolina has been named as the location for Continental’s planned US passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyre facility. Construction work on Conti’s first own greenfield project in the US will get underway there in mid-2012, and Conti anticipates a 2013 completion date. When first phase production targets are fully reached in 2017, an annual capacity of nearly five million tyres is expected. A second phase project should lift capacity by a further three million units per year by 2021. Continental reports the project’s initial phase involves an investment of more than US$500 million and the creation of more than 1,600 jobs.
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