Techking recently attended the 57th OTR Conference, which was held from 15 – 18 February 2012 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA. Techking attended the event as the China OTR manufacturer representative and the member of TIA (Tire Industry Association). This is the fifth consecutive occasion Techking has attended this conference for off-the-road tyre industry.
Tire Group International has announced another new addition to its international sales team. The Florida, US-based wholesaler has appointed John Abreu its new territory manager for Puerto Rico & Colombia. Abreu has been in the automotive industry for more than ten years and TGI comments that he brings a vast amount of experience and knowledge in the passenger, light truck, truck, industrial, agricultural and OTR tyre segments with him into this new role. Previously, Abreu worked for more than five years at General Motors as its fixed operations director.
The US House of Representatives has joined the Senate in passing new legislation that would allow the government to impose higher tariffs on goods from state-controlled economies that subsidise exports to the US, reports Tire Review. The journal says the legislation targets the tyre industry in particular, and was drafted and presented in reaction to the December 2011 federal appeals court ruling that the Commerce Department did not have the power to levy so-called punitive countervailing duties, effectively tossing out a series of duties – some as high as 210 per cent – it placed on China-produced OTR and agricultural tyres imported into the US.
Kings Road Tyres (KRT), the exclusive UK distributor of Aeolus truck, bus and OTR tyres has launched a new website for the brand to improve awareness and knowledge of the company’s range of specialist tyre applications.
Two further companies have announced higher prices for their North American customers. As of 1 April Goodyear will increase prices on all its consumer and commercial tyres by up to six per cent. The increase impacts all original equipment and replacement market Goodyear, Dunlop and Kelly brand tyres sold in the US and Canada.
Global demand OTR radials for use in construction and mining applications is growing, and to meet the needs of a hungry market, Bridgestone intends to build a new production facility in Thailand. On 5 March the Japanese tyre maker announced plans to invest around 50 billion yen (£385.6 million) setting up the tyre plant in Rayong, and production there is expected to begin in the first half of 2015. Production capacity at the new plant is expected to reach approximately 85 tons per day by the 1st half of 2019, when scheduled capacity increases are completed. In addition, Bridgestone will also erect a steel cord manufacturing facility through its cord manufacturing subsidiary.
Dutch tyre firm Magna Tyres has announced that it is now an official preferred supplier to Terex Cranes. Such is the scope of the deal, all cranes produced by Terex at its Zweibücken, Germany and Montceau les Mines, France production lines are equipped with Magna Tyres as standard.
The deal may only have been announced now, but the cooperation between the two companies has been going for a few years already. Nevertheless the formal long term agreement was signed in January 2012.
On 19 January a delegation from Bekaert’s Shanghai, China office visited Techking. According to the company, during the meeting, Techking and Bekaert shared their respective views on thee future development trends relating to the tyre industry. Through technical communications relating to OTR, TBR and PCR lines, both parties agreed to develop steel cord with special specifications for Techking ‘concept’ tyre products.
Octavian Velcan has been appointed managing director of the Goodyear Dunlop Off the Road tyre business for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Velcan will report to Michel Rzonzef, recently-appointed vice president of the Goodyear Dunlop Commercial Business Unit EMEA, which includes the truck tyre, OTR tyre and farm tyre business and customer support services.
It’s now more than two years since the Kal Tire Mining Tire Group acquired a majority shareholding in Derbyshire-based OTR Tyres, and the company says retreading at its Alfreton facility shows that despite increasing raw material costs and a major shortage of good, retreadable casings, demand for a quality product still exists. In the past 12 months Kal Tire’s UK retreading plant utilised in excess of 1.3 million pounds (590,000 kilogrammes) of rubber compound in the retreading of more than 3,000 off-road tyres.
Production capacity of large and ultra-large off the road radials at Bridgestone’s Kitakyushu plant in Japan is to increase in order to meet growing global demand for these products. The tyre maker announced on 16 February that capacity will rise by 20 tons a day to approximately 165 tons in the first half of 2014. Alongside this increase, Bridgestone intends to increase production capacity at its Saga plant, which produces the radial steel cord used in large and ultra-large OTR tyres. As of December 2011 the Saga plant manufactured around 270 tons of steel cord a day; the size of the announced capacity increase was not disclosed in Bridgestone’s 16 February announcement. Approximately 4.7 billion yen (£38.2 million) will be invested in the two projects.
China tyre manufacturer Techking reports that it is successfully supplying a customer in Japan in conjunction with a local partner. Together the two companies have reportedly supplied the unnamed Japanese customer with Techking 16.00 R25 ETADT tyres, complete with service support.
AM Bromley has launched TMS Log Graph and enhanced TMS Internal Sensors for its Tire Monitor System for off the road vehicles. Manufactured independently by AM Bromley, the TMS System provides visible, real-time data to drivers and managers to help them return the best value on their outlay on tyres. The initial TMS range launched in 2005 and the company says it is now used by thousands of OTR vehicles across the world, with a “surge of interest from developing regions including India and China”.
Eldan Recycling has developed tyre recycling equipment that enables owners to process whole car and truck tyres including super singles and even OTR and mining tyres. De-beading of the tyres is not required prior to processing. The company uses a modular approach, which covers all customer requirements on equipment to process at different levels down the “recycling road” including production of shreds, chips, granulate and powder – all having their own platform within recycling. The various standard plants are “multi-size”, which give the customer total control over the production of a various range of output sizes. By a simple and quick change of the screen combinations in the machines a different range of output sizes is produced.
Getting things done quietly has never been Titan International's strong suit, so the fact the firm apparently bought out two companies back in September may come as something of a surprise. Tire Review reports that Titan acquired tyre and retread mould maker Ohio Machine & Manufacturing Co. and wheel production equipment maker Automation International Inc. Both deals closed in September, according to chairman and CEO Morry Taylor, who disclosed the deals during a 13 December telephone presentation to financial analysts.
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