Known for its style, speed and performance marketing values, Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational company based in Milan, Italy, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, with a temporary privatization period by the consortium led by the Chinese state-owned enterprise ChemChina.
Reuters reports that, in a move to alleviate the euro zone crisis Italy faces, Pirelli & C. SpA has signed a newspaper petition offering to buy government bonds. The tyre maker is said to be one of 24 Italian companies that added their names to a petition instigated by the business daily Milano Finanza.
Pirelli’s announcement regarding the tyre selections for the Belgium, Italy and Singapore Grands Prix has been followed by the news that the manufacturer’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery doesn’t “think we’ll see the hard compound again”. Speaking with Autosport, Hembery stated that the medium compound P Zero F1 tyre is “proving sufficiently robust for the aggressive circuits”, speculating that a new compound could be inserted “between the current softs and mediums”, making the current medium compound the hardest of the four.
Tyrepress.com reported Pirelli’s selected tyres for the Belgium, Italy and Singapore Grands Prix earlier in the week, and reaction to the news that the tyre supplier will make its soft P Zero Yellow tyre available at all three events seemed to raise a few eyebrows in motorsport circles. Spa-Francorchamps and Monza are two of the faster circuits on the Formula One calendar, and it was suggested Ferrari’s preference for the softer tyres had influenced Pirelli’s choice to bring the Yellow tyre alongside the medium P Zero White. However Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport director, has rebuffed the suggestion that the choice was made to benefit any team in particular.
Italian tyre giant Pirelli could be considering an investment in the future of its Carlisle plant according to a report by regional newspaper The Cumberland News. The paper reports a conversation with Pirelli’s UK Industrial director Paolo Battistini, who suggested that the company has some “investment forecast for this factory.” Battistini also reiterated the company’s desire to stay in Carlisle, while engineering manager Allan Wilson told the paper that “We want to develop new products in Carlisle for the UK. We’re constantly putting forward our case for investment.”
Cambrian Tyres has just released the second edition of its 2011 price catalogue. The 170 page catalogue lists the full ranges available from Avon, Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Metzeler, Michelin and Pirelli and reflects recent price increases made by the manufacturers. The price list also features a fitment guide to aid customers in selecting the correct size tyres for all bikes made in the last 35 years.
The bloodbath at the stock exchange continues, with share prices of all the leading tyre makers falling sharply. The attention grabbing headline news is set-against strong half year figures from all leading tyre manufacturers which range from very good to excellent. And it is more than likely that the industry will set new record figures at the end of the year in terms of turnover and profit, which in normal circumstances virtually guarantees rising share prices. However, for the last 10 days the contrary has been true.
Hankook has announced plans to add sponsorship deals with football teams in the UK, France and Sweden to its 2011/2012 marketing strategy. Amongst other things, Hankook will now embark on an advertising campaign utilising hoardings at football stadiums belonging to teams such as Sunderland. This means the tyre firm will be present in the German Bundesliga, the English Premier League, Ligue 1 in France, Serie A in Italy, Primera Division in Spain as well as the Russian Premjer-Liga altogether.
The German trailer industry is undergoing a very rapid revival in its fortunes, according to consulting group Clear. Output of trailers has been boosted by three key demand growth factors, says the firm’s latest report on the subject.
Firstly, the German market itself has recovered from the nadir of 2009 in splendid style: sales of trailers will exceed the combined demand of France, the UK and Italy in 2011 as it did in 2010. Secondly, exports of trailers from Germany increased by 90 per cent in 2010 as markets in both East and West Europe, with a very few exceptions, started to recover. Thirdly, stocks of finished trailers which had accumulated as the recession bit, had been large cleaned out, leaving the industry in a very lean condition. This meant that all new orders went straight into increased production.
Tyregiant.com, backed by well-known UK tyre wholesaler Bond International, has been pre-launched today with the firm offering a taster of what the “the online pit stop for fantastic quality tyres at discount prices” has to offer. According to the company, the winning news is that by dealing directly with factories throughout the world they can offer up to 50 per cent savings on leading brands, beating competitors who claim to offer up to 40 per cent off. For full details see future issues of Tyres & Accessories.
Formula One tyre supplier Pirelli has announced the tyre compounds it will take to the Grands Prix in Belgium, Italy and Singapore. The two European races will see the P Zero Yellow (soft) and White (medium) tyres used, while Pirelli will take the P Zero Red (super soft) and Yellow to the Asian night race to take on the streets of the island’s major city, where grip will be at a premium.
McLaren’s Jenson Button took his second victory in mixed conditions at the Hungaroring, to follow his win in similar weather in Canada earlier this year. The Englishman was assured of victory after his team mate Lewis Hamilton changed onto intermediate tyres in the closing stages of the race only to find that the conditions were not wet enough, forcing him to revert to slicks in his fifth pit stop of the afternoon. In an intriguing move, Hamilton had saved an extra set of supersoft tyres for the race during qualifying, allowing him to find extra grip even in the damp middle stages of the race. However, a gamble on more rain failed to pay off and he finished fourth, leaving Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to take the podium’s lower steps.
Despite the fact that both Continental and Michelin reports second quarter/first half pre-tax profits (EBIT) broadly in line with expectations, financial analysts have highlighted the “difference in momentum” between the two firms’ results. According to Morgan Stanley, the intraday spread between the two stocks was 600 basis points when the results were announced on Friday 29 July.
“Although we think Michelin can surprise positively in the second half, in the shorter term Conti should outperform thanks to improving momentum in consensus earnings,” Morgan Stanley’s Edoardo Spina commented, explaining the differential.
It was announced last week that in spite of excellent viewing figures and widely lauded coverage, Formula One has made a deal that will mean that only half the races will be shown live on the BBC from next season. Every race, testing and qualifying session will be shown live on Sky Sports with ten Grands Prix also appearing on the BBC, in addition to highlights of those events for which Sky will hold exclusive live rights. The new arrangement comes two years before the BBC’s current exclusive broadcaster deal was due to end. Exclusive tyre supplier Pirelli has reacted with circumspection to the news, suggesting that it will give close scrutiny to the viewing figures it receives under the new deal.
As Pirelli observed in the July 2011 edition of ‘Truck’, the tyre maker’s in-house magazine for the commercial vehicle sector, the winter of 2010-11 was one of the severest in recent memory. The UK experienced snowfalls as early as November, it noted, causing such traffic disruptions that the Automobile Association describes the period as the most active in its 100-year history – the motoring association answered 200,000 calls for assistance on November 29 alone. In December the lowest temperatures since 1890 were reached.
Continental is raising its outlook for 2011, based on what it called “a very successful first half-year” that included double-digit growth rates for sales and EBIT. “We had previously forecast sales of more than 28.5 billion euros, but we are now expecting at least 29.5 billion euros. We are also targeting an adjusted EBIT margin of around 10 per cent, slightly more than the good 2010 figure of 9.7 per cent,” said Continental executive board chairman Dr. Elmar Degenhart on Friday 29 July on publishing figures for the first half of the year.
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