Indonesia’s tyre production grew from 35.72 to 39.98 million units in 2005, according to the Indonesian Association of Tire Producers (APBI). The Asia Pulse news agency quoted APBI chairman Aziz Pane as saying that the increase in production was boosted by growing demand in the international market. Pane said 70 per cent of the production in 2005 was exported.
Bulgarian company Ecoprocess (Dobrich) has completed the construction of a tyre recycling factory. The plant uses a technique called vacuum pyrolysis to incinerate tyres and break them down into carbon, pyrolysis oil and gas.
Ervin Lee, of North Dakota, has developed a process for turning scrap tyres into oil and other petroleum products and he plans a trial, utilising a pile of 9,000 tyres.
Natural rubber prices are predicted to keep rising in 2006 for the second straight year, as demand from tyre manufacturers continues to outstrip supply, Rubber World has reported. “Bullishness may persist in the rubber market as demand for the commodity remains quite strong,” Michael Coleman, managing director of Singapore-based Aisling Analytics told Dow Jones newswires.
Used tyre recycling technology has scooped the Invention of the Year award on ABC TV’s The New Inventors.
Developed by Gold Coast inventor John Dobozy, the Melectra Tyre Recycling technology integrates mechanical, chemical and microwave treatment to break down tyres into their base materials – oil, carbon, rubber granules, steel and plastic fibres, recycling 100 per cent of a tyre without waste, residue or emissions.
Ford UK has been named the ‘Best Performing Corporate Organisation’ in the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code awards, in recognition of Ford’s outstanding contribution to materials recycling.
During 2005 the company has purchased sufficient recycled-content products to stop 21,000 tonnes of materials – the equivalent of nearly 3,000 Double Decker buses – being disposed of in landfill sites.
London-based International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) expects the price of natural rubber to remain strong in the next 10 to 15 years, increasing by about 25 to 30 US cents per kilo annually. Secretary-general Dr Hidde Smit told the Malaysia Star that the IRSG’s price forecast for NR this year was about $1.45 per kilogram, slightly higher than US$1.40 per kilo projected for 2004.
“There is an upward pressure for NR prices to be traded higher, buoyed by the increasing rubber consumption in the tyre sector, particularly in China, as well as the switch to NR from higher cost synthetic rubber due to higher crude oil prices,” he said.
The Environment Agency today launched a new awareness campaign reminding companies, businesses and local mechanics to dispose of waste oil safely and legally or face tough penalties.
Under the new Waste Incineration Directive – to be implemented on 28th December 2005 – companies that incinerate waste oils such as, power stations and road stone coaters, must meet strict new environmental regulations. As a result, the price of disposal is expected to increase.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has developed a tyre that uses less synthetic rubber than normal. Approximately 55 per cent of the material in a conventional tyre, including synthetic rubber and other polymers, is petroleum-derived. The new Sumitomo tyre drops this down to around 30 per cent.
In addition to reducing the amount of synthetic rubber used, the manufacturer also plans to increase the share of genetically engineered natural rubber, which is made from the latex sap of the rubber tree, the Green Car Congress has reported.
Raw materials and the right machinery are integral to the tyre production process. But who delivers the best raw materials and how have the markets been affected by high oil prices and booming demand from so-called low cost countries. And how influential are prices on the finished product?
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire, & Rubber Co’s Engineered Products unit opened a new oil hose plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The $13 million plant, Goodyear’s fifth in Brazil, will have 150 employees. The plant will produce floating and submarine oil hose designed to transfer crude oil and derivatives. Goodyear announced just weeks ago that it was putting the Engineered Products unit on the sale block.
Battery manufacturer Varta has highlighted an anomaly regarding automotive batteries – with today’s products vastly superior to those of a few years ago in both performance and longevity, how come the battery is still the cause of most calls to motoring organisations and breakdown service providers?
The answer, says Varta, is that there are so many power consumers on today’s cars that these can adversely impact on the ability of the battery and alternator to provide constant energy, particularly in winter where the nominal output of the alternator can be easily exceeded in even the shortest journey. And we are talking about modern cars with healthy batteries with comparatively low power consumers, such as lights and heaters.
While the ripple effects of the e-commerce revolution continue to filter down through the tyre trade, some businesses are already looking to the next big thing.
While email marketing and online tyre retail might be new to some people, in Norway tyre dealers are trying to maximise sales amongst an increasingly technologically aware population. The answer? Communicate with consumers through their mobile phones.
(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper Tire & Rubber Co posted a net loss of $7 million in its second quarter of 2005, a downturn fuelled by the strike at its Texarkana, Arkansas, tyre plant earlier this year and rising raw material costs. Cooper also lost $2 million overall for the first half of 2005.
Net sales for the second quarter reached $511 million, up slightly from sales of $509 for the same period last year. For the first six months, Cooper racked up net sales of $1 billion, up 4 per cent versus the first half of 2004.
Printer ink can cost as much as vintage champagne, reports New Scientist. So finding a cheap way of making it must be a great money making opportunity. Now three inventors from Derbyshire think they have found a way of doing just that. The solution? Extract the carbon from unwanted tyres to generate a cheap and plentiful supply.
The black carbon powder used in regular ink is refined from pure oil and the liquid used in cartridges is boiled down from a volume six times larger. On the other hand, millions of tyres are disposed of each year.
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