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Romanian Acquisition For Michelin

Nomura International, which holds a “substantial” equity stake in Romanian tyre manufacturer Tofan, has announced the sale of parts of the company to Michelin. The French company has bought the Victoria car tyre plant, the Silvania truck tyre factory, a retreading unit, a number of warehouses and the Tofan-owned distribution network. The purchase price was not revealed but a number of tyre manufacturers are said to have been interested. Tofan will continue to manufacture agricultural and implement (brand name: Danubiana) tyres and this business will be expanded, says Nomura, which remains a significant shareholder.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

19th Autopromotec in Bologna – Good and Bad got close

From May 23rd to 27th, 2001, the 19th Autopromotec took place in Bologna’s exhibition center, where nearly everybody could have met who is traditionally engaged with some kind of vehicle care and repair. 924 exhibitors (7 percent more than in 1999) from more than 30 countries were presenting their products on the whole site of more than 90,000 square meters, divided into 12 exhibition halls and an outdoor area. Again, the complete service sector concerning the car was represented there: Garage alignment suppliers, remoulders with their material and equipment suppliers, garagists, manufacturers of wheels and vehicle parts, and last but not least, tyre industry as well as wholesaler and special trade organisations and companies. Visitors had been as international as the exhibitors – the organisers did expect more than 80,000 car repair specialists from more than 100 different countries. Although in the end there had been some 3,000 more, but without visiting every hall equally. And again, those halls got the visitors’ main interest where garage alignment suppliers, i.e. the manufacturers of balancing machines, alignment gauges, hydraulic ramps or even complete test lane automates had their stands. However, there had been considerably less visitors in hall 23, where “remoulding technology” was concentrated.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Rubber Parts Unit For Toyo

Toyo Tyre and Rubber Co has announced the establishment of a wholly owned US subsidiary. The $20million plant will begin manufacturing vibration resistant rubber auto parts by July 2002. The company’s main outlets will be Japanese motor manufacturers operating in North America.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyre Hearing Claims Disputed By Goodyear

Goodyear has disputed data cited at the congressional hearing into the Ford/Firestone dispute. The company claims to have submitted its own safety data and is questioning the committee’s interpretation of the data they have already received. According to Goodyear the Ford data of damage claims of five parts per million is based on a Ford standard and that a damage claim does not reflect a defect. Goodyear added that “the use of relevant data and comparisons by the committee will remedy any consumer confusion of fears”.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

What Plans For Pirelli Tyres?

During a press conference held in Milan, Pirelli boss Tronchetti Provera did not give much away and remained vague. The company’s strategy will focus more on high technology and telecommunications in the future, but Tronchetti Provera stressed that he could not be more precise until he has made up his mind and seen all there is to see in Telecom Italiana. He said that he would focus on debt reductions as quickly as possible. Some parts of Pirelli are now for sale; a small part of the cables and the truck tyre division, for which Pirelli hopes to collect around 2 billion Euro. The passenger car and motorbike tyre division is not for sale. There are rumours that Pirelli is in talks with Michelin and Bridgestone. Of the two remaining major manufacturers, Continental may not have the money, as the group is already planning other take-overs, and Goodyear already has sufficient production capacity.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Winter Tyres Business – A Hope And A Worry

Last year’s miserable winter tyre business has had a marked effect on many market players. Only a small number of dealers in very few regions of Germany could report a normal winter tyre business. In most parts of the country the snow came too late. If it does not snow until the beginning of November it becomes increasingly harder day by day to convince the end users to fit their cars with winter tyres. November is absolutely the most important month for retailer‘s winter tyre business. In late summer and early autumn of 2000 the tyre manufacturers were very happy about their sales to the dealers, which reached record levels. But of course the managers of the tyre industry are not so naive as to regard the lack of sales to the end users later on in the season as a problem only for the dealerships. This problem comes back to the manufacturers in two ways. First of all dealers experienced a lack of financial liquidity and there were problems in paying invoices. Secondly, having tyres in stock affects the willingness to order for next year – in this case 2001 – at the same level as before. Because merely listing the troubles would be pointless and unproductive, we tried another approach: we spoke to a lot of market players in order to form an overview of opinion and compared this with some hard figures.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Member of TecDoc

American automotive supplier Delphi has become the latest member of the TecDoc automotive parts information platform. With a turnover of 29 billion US-Dollars in 2000, Delphi Automotive Systems is the biggest automotive supplier in the world. Altogether 114 companies worldwide, representing 130 brands, now support the TecDoc platform, covering 100 percent of the European spare parts market.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Not only Firestone: Now Huge Recall At Ford

Car manufacturer Ford has – as American news agencies have reported – recalled 876,000 cars of the types Explorer and Mercury Mountaineers because of faulty chassis parts. 262 incidents, mainly occurring in Canada, have been reported to date. The owners of these models will be informed by mail. The Ford press department in Cologne does not regard Germany as being involved in this recall.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Study Says UK Motor Dealers ‘Unable To Compete’

A report by the Consumers Association says that UK franchised motor dealers cannot compete effectively against rivals in every area of business, from new car sales to servicing. When it comes to repairs and sales of spare parts, the dealers cannot match prices and performance of competitors such as the large fast-fit chains, the study concludes.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Phoenix Long-Term Ambitious

Phoenix, supplier to the vehicle industry, itself a tyre manufacturer many years ago and still specialising, though not exclusively, in rubber parts for the automobile industry, is not reaching its turnover and profit targets as quickly as planned. Air springs, an area in which Continental is also involved, however, promises to develop into a jewel for the group from 2001 and gives ground for hope of steep rises in turnover and earnings in the long term.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Montinex In Administrative Receivership

On Friday 4th August, the Montinex tyre retail group went into Administrative Receivership. Discussions with potential purchaser Stapleton’s Tyre Services broke down last month. The parts of the Montinex group in Receivership are Chessington Tyres, Malvern Tyres, Northway Tyres and Charlie Brown’s Autocentres, totalling some 144 retail outlets. It is hoped to sell these as a going concern. Fleet Tyre Management is not in Receivership and is continuing to trade. Montinex turns over £86m annually and employs 840.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

ETRA Conference Discusses Scrap Tyres

The problem of scrap tyres (or, as ETRA prefers to call them, post-consumer tyres) is one which affects every country where tyres are sold. ETRA, the European Tyre Recycling Association, is the only European organisation devoted exclusively to tyre and rubber recycling and in July, the association held a conference in the UK to discuss the scale of the problem, assess progress and look at possible solutions. ETRA regards post-consumer tyres as a readily available and inexpensive resource rather than merely a problem and the association is keen to get this viewpoint across to the industry, governments and the public. Around 2.5 million scrap tyres arise every year in the EU, of which 61% are re-used or recycled in some form. 39% go to landfill, which will be banned shortly. The conference programme was a full one, with a variety of speakers, including representatives from enforcement and licensing agencies, trade associations and those involved in developing new processes and uses for scrap tyres. Among the solutions discussed were rubberised asphalt, rubberised sports surfaces, the emotive subject of using tyres as artificial reefs and a method of using microwaves to break down tyres into their component parts. The effective and environmental disposal of scrap tyres is a problem for all parts of the industry and one which will become even more acute when landfilling of tyres is banned in a few years.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Redundancies And Closures At Finelist

There are reports of redundancies and closures at car parts group Finelist, which went into administrative receivership. Rumours that 120 staff had been made redundant and that 50 Motor World car accessory shops had been closed down, were not confirmed by receivers. It is believed that over 100 companies have expressed an interest in buying parts of Finelist, with ten or so willing to buy the group as a whole.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

The Tyre As Part Of A System

The tyre can no longer be regarded as an isolated part of a car but is integrated into an increasingly complicated network or system. Progress in electronics especially has been revolutionary and has enormous influence on the work of tyre technicians. The engineers have to think in systems and integrate the tyre into all parts of the motive power of the car. Between the two corners “tyre wheel system” and the engine, is a wide field which the car makers and their suppliers are exploiting step by step. Immediately next to the tyres are modules such as brakes, shock absorbers and axles. Around the tyre is the “chassis”. The producers of certain of these elements in the past developed their own product without contacting the producers of neighbouring chassis parts. They were driven by their customers in the car industry, who gave information about the performance of the product with the target that all the parts should be compatible. As development progresses, this becomes harder and harder. In the future the suppliers will be forced to cooperate one with another, in order to make the best possible technology available for the car.

7th December 2000/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli Reifenwerke: A Denial Denied

In its August issue NEUE REIFENZEITUNG reported that Pirelli had fallen behind with its plans for Germany, in parts by 20 p.c., and that the attraction of the Pirelli brand was on the wane, with price erosion as the consequence. Dr. Wentz, the Pirelli Reifenwerke boss, it was said, had to postpone his intended retirement, because G. Sala, his successor-designate, was unable to take up his post for health reasons. We also mentioned the possible return to Höchst of Dr. P. Masera as Pirelli Reifenwerke boss. Pirelli declared that Dr. Wentz would stay in office for several more years, and that there was no question of the Pirelli brand becoming less popular, rather the contrary. Results were good, we were told, Pirelli was doing very well in Germany and no redundancies were planned. One month later the head of the group, Tronchetti Provera, announced 2,800 job cuts for this year, 800 of them on the tyre side. In this context Milan made special mention of the significant price reduction in the winter tyre segment and in super-high-performance tyres, especially in the German market. In the meantime Dr. Masera has taken over as Chairman of the management. Dr. Wentz will leave Pirelli Reifenwerke by the end of the year but retain his seat on the board of Pirelli Deutschland AG and is also in line for a seat on the supervisory board.

7th December 1999/by Tyrepress Editors