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On November 5 Standard & Poor’s lowered Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s credit rating outlook from “positive” to “stable” due to decreasing demand for tyres. Goodyear’s long-term corporate rating remains at BB-, three grades below investment quality, the financial market intelligence provider said in a statement.
On November 6 Pirelli & C. SpA and Russian Technologies State Corporation signed an agreement formalising a joint venture between the two companies. Although details of the JV are still to be finalised, Pirelli reports that the production of tyres in Russia will begin before the end of 2010.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news service, the production of truck and bus tyres began today at Kumho Tire’s new facility in China. The US$100 million plant in Nanjing has a capacity to produce 300,000 bus and truck tyres per annum, the company said in a statement.
A Shropshire company believes it could have the answer to safety fears raised by Powys County Council’s decision to turn off more than 9,000 street lights to save cash which may set a trend throughout the UK.
Council chiefs are turning off two out of three lights in non-core residential areas after it was revealed the authority’s £500,000 lighting bill was set to rise by £175,000.
But Grant Taylor, managing director of GIBS 2000 Limited and inventor of Traxeyes, believes his innovative glowing light system called Traxeyes could be the answer: “It’s ironic that cars and road users get multi million investments on road safety and pedestrians and cyclists get nothing.”
Pirelli showed an 18.7 per cent profit drop for the first nine months of this calendar year. The Italian giant is quoted by Reuters as stating, “The size of the decline will be greater than what had been estimated at the end of the first half.” The company expects that the decline will continue until the last sheet is torn off the 2008 calendar.
Motorists with cash in their pockets have given chrome wheels the nod for the last decade, but in America these look-at-me vehicle accessories are losing favour with drivers pummelled by rising fuel and other costs. In an article published by USA Today, König Wheels sales manager Jim Fisher commented that the fashion for chrome wheels “might come back, but it’s going to be a while…..we’re selling something that people don’t need.”
Initial responses to the Tyrepress.com question of the month suggest that industry professionals believe that motorsport series should consider the benefits of having more than one tyre supplier. So far, almost half of readers supported manufacturer competition, with only around 25 per cent of responses standing up for the lone tyre supplier. Other readers trod a more balanced path; one suggests that “Tyres are capable of creating an uneven playing surface… in the premier divisions of motorsport there is a need to ensure that as much can be delivered in driver capability and vehicle innovation. In the lower levels of clubman championships a good mixture of tyres is healthy for the sport.”
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Efforts on the part of Cooper Tire & Rubber to develop custom tyre solutions have resulted in a joint development agreement with Resilient Technologies, LLC to produce a prototype of a new, state-of-the-art, non-pneumatic military tyre.
The US military currently serves in numerous locales, and during its operations a growing number of army vehicles have become disabled through flat or punctured tyres, leaving occupants vulnerable to attack. To remedy this potentially lethal scenario, Resilient has been working on a bullet and shrapnel resistant non-pneumatic tyre (NPT) for more than two years.
In hot pursuit…..of careless vehicle maintenance. According to Kwik-Fit, millions of UK motorists are at risk of being a DIPSTIC. Mind you, when the fast fit giant says this it isn’t doling out the harmless insult made popular by Hazzard County sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane – it means each of these road users is potentially a Driver In Poor State To Inspect Cars. Strong words indeed, but Kwik-Fit has survey results to back its claim.
About 240 workers at the Michelin North America tyre factory in Ardmore, Oklahoma will be laid off for around two months, starting mid-November. According to Michelin public relations manager Lynn Mann, the work force reduction is a temporary measure, one brought about due to the country’s economic downturn and a weaker demand for passenger car and light truck tyres.
According to one US newspaper, Cooper Tire & Rubber is expected to announce by January 19 which of its four US factories faces closure. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that the unionised Findlay and Texarkana, and the non-union Albany and Tupelo plants have been, or are to be, visited by Cooper officials, with information packages on each facility to be delivered to the company by December 1.
Dunlop has released the dates for its 2009 Great & British festival, at which the company’s Sport Maxx Production Cup series for saloon and sports cars will take place, alongside the Mini and Radical Championships. The festival will take place: at Rockingham on 18-19 April; at Brands Hatch on 6-7 June; at Donnington Park on 4-5 July; at Castle Combe on 18-19 July; at Croft on 22-23 August; and finally at Snitterton on 12-13 September.
With raw materials continually rising in cost and supplies becoming stretched further all the time, one more solution to the problem of expensive natural rubber supply may be on the cards. Cooper is partnering The Program of Excellence in Natural Rubber Alternatives (PENRA) to research the possibilities of a new domestic source. At the head of the field of possibilities is the Russian Dandelion, scientifically known as Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS). Its roots can be processed into natural rubber, which would serve as the polymer for multiple compound components of a tyre, including the sidewall, base and tread. Russian Dandelions have a similar appearance to more common dandelions but also possess a more complex root system.
“Cooper is extremely excited to participate in this innovative ‘green’ project,” said Chuck Yurkovich, Cooper Tire’s vice president of Global Technology. “This new process involves forward-thinking technology with potential to bring a competitive substitute supply of natural rubber that will be produced in the United States, reducing our dependency on off shore imports. In addition to providing a supply of natural rubber that is critical to a number of industries, it’s also an opportunity for Cooper to remain competitive in the market place with an environmentally friendly product that creates jobs here in the United States.”
Denmead Tyres, a First Stop dealership, is celebrated its 40th year in business this month. Set up in 1968 by David Rockett, the family business has gone from strength to strength during the last four decades. David Rockett welcomed his son, Dean, into the firm in 1996 and, together with business partner Ian Jagger, they have built a successful business which specialises in the high performance end of the market. Denmead Tyres currently employs eight tyre specialists and enjoys the patronage of regional newsreader Fred Dinenage.
Zesu, an international leader in tyre flat proofing for large earthmover, OTR and industrial tyres, is now offering “a complete solution for the prevention of all punctures, blow-outs and inconsistent tyre pressures in tyres used by straddle carriers.”
This unique solution lies in Zeus’s new and next generation three-part ‘TRIOfill’ poly-urethane flat-proofing product. This completely redesigned formulation, not only incorporates revolutionary virgin rubber content, but also delivers a much cleaner, greener and higher level of physical properties not to mention a new electrically driven tyre filling system.
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