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Apollo Tyres has said that it will invest Rs 1,000 crore (around US$237 million) this year to increase capacity at its factories in Gujarat and Kerala. The projected production increase is 10 per cent on the current figure of 850 tonnes/day.
Francesco Gori, President of the Umbrella Association of the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers ETRMA, will be a speaker at the opening press conference for the Reifen 2008 international trade fair at Messe Essen. In his statement, the Director-General of Pirelli’s tyre business will comment, amongst other subjects, on the planned more stringent EU provisions for tyre manufacturers and on the challenges which will thus result for European manufacturers in comparison with Asian tyre producers.
Leading European tyre retailer Delticom AG has reported a 9.4 per cent year on year revenue increase in the first three months of 2008. Details of the company’s Q1 2008 performance, release May 14, point to growth in spite of what is traditionally a week time of the year for tyre sales.
Revenue during the quarter was 42.6 million euros, compared with 38.9 million in the first quarter of 2007. EBIT improved from 250,000 euros in Q1 2007 to 510,000 euros this year. At the same time, consolidated net income rose to 480,000 euros, an increase of 29.7 per cent. Regarding the figures, Delticom comments that the first quarter is traditionally the weakest in sales, and this held true in the first quarter of 2008 – unseasonably cool March weather caused many drivers in Germany and other European countries to delay the purchase of summer tyres until April.
Indian mining equipment manufacturer BEML Limited has reported details of the agreement it has entered for the production of OTR tyres to meet its requirements. The 12-year deal it has signed with major customer Coal India Limited will assure both parties’ continued supply of tyres, which will be manufactured in an exclusive facility being created with funding provided by BEML and Coal India.
The tyres at this new facility will be produced by Apollo Tyres and JK Tyre. Coal India will provide BEML with Rs 2 billion (£24.3 million) in funds, which is to be equally invested in each tyre manufacturer for the project.
The CFO and executive vice president of Hayes Lemmerz, James A. Yost, has announced his resignation from the company. Mr. Yost, who has been with Hayes Lemmerz since 2002, is taking up a similar position at Dana Holding Corporation.
“It has been a pleasure working with the Hayes management team over the past six years. Helping the company emerge from reorganisation into a strong, global automotive supplier has been a great experience. The company is poised for continued success and I wish the team well,” said Yost.
Giti Tire reportedly is planning to launch a US$400 million to $500 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Hong Stock Exchange during 2008. The Reuters news service has published an article, saying that ‘sources with knowledge of the deal’ indicate such an offering may take place sooner rather that later. “We hope that the deal can be launched as soon as June,” one of the sources said, while another source did not report a fixed timeframe.
Giti Tire is said to have originally planned to launch a Hong Kong IPO in 2004, but later postponed the deal.
Hankook Tire America Corp. is raising prices by up to 8 per cent on its full line of passenger, high performance and light truck tyres and up to 5 per cent on its medium duty truck tyres. The amount of the increase will vary by product line and/or size, and will take effect July 1.
The increase in prices reflects the industry’s sharply rising costs for raw materials and energy consumed in manufacturing and distribution, Hankook said.
Michelin has announced that it will run a live, full size demonstration its new Energy Saver tyres at the British International Motor Show at ExCel, London Docklands from 23 July to 3 August. Michelin aims to illustrate its tyres’ rolling resistance performance with two identical driverless cars, one fitted with Michelin Energy Saver tyres and the other with a non rolling resistance optimised product. The two cars will be simultaneously released and allowed to roll down a ski-slope type ramp, with an up-ramp at the opposite end. Michelin representatives said it a statement that the car fitted with Energy Saver tyres will “roll for longer and thus cover a greater distance before coming to a standstill.”
Indian tyre manufacturer Ceat has launched an all new website, www.ceatyres.com. The company’s new web presence comes less than a month after the launch of Ceat’s new and fresh corporate logo, the first redesign in half a century.
Upon launching the logo, company CEO Paras K Chowdhary said “the shift to a new logo and a new look symbolises the strategic transformation of Ceat…..The overall design more accurately represents the company’s vision of leading the industry in delivering best-in-class products, innovation and services to customers.”
The website features information about the company, the product range, along with tyre maintenance and information pages.
First Stop dealership, Kingsway Tyres has re-opened its Spalding depot with a weekend of events following a major redevelopment. The refurbishment of the Spalding site marks the launch of Bridgestone UK’s ‘model stores’, which are seen as flagship outlets in the First Stop network. Kingsway Tyres invested a total of £200,000 in the refurbishment and extension of the Bourne Road site with a specific focus on providing an appealing environment for customers, including a new reception area and MOT office.
Alex Watson managing director of Kingsway Tyres commented: “We are delighted to unveil the results of the significant investment in the refurbishment and extension of our dealership and are looking forward to providing our customers with an even better experience for all their car and tyre needs. The opening weekend was a huge success and gave us a chance to showcase our re-developed store to new and existing customers.”
The Continental rear-end collision prevention safety system that recently debuted on the Volvo XC60, and will be fitted standard to the vehicle when it reaches UK showrooms this October, has won its first UK award. The City Safety system took top honours in the Technology category at the Fleet World Honours Awards 2008, held in London on May 13.
Commenting on the award, Chairman of Judges George Emmerson said: “Volvo’s commitment to researching and developing groundbreaking technologies has led to a number of safety milestones. City Safety is among the cleverest so far, predicting when low-speed accidents will happen and preventing them from occurring. City Safety will offer fleets financial, operational and social benefits that deserve recognition.”
Stories about tyres that travel 100,000 miles are much less of a novelty, but its not very often you come across a set that have been 5.3 million miles. The products in question are retired rubber from the Space Shuttle discovery which, NASA announced last week, would be rolled out as the pilot for a new artefact loan program targeted at museums.
OK so while saying that the tyres lasted 5.3 million miles is, quite literally, an astronomical claim, the performance characteristics of these products should not be underestimated. According to news sources, just one of Discovery’s main gear tyre can carry three times the load of a Boeing 747 tyre or 40 race cars – all hitting the pavement at 250 miles per hour. When you consider that to qualify for a three-year renewable loan, organisations need only insure the tyres for a retail value set by NASA of $250 per tyre, they really do appear to be quite a bargain.
The pan-European organisation representing retreading manufacturers, BIPAVER, is to hold its annual general assembly meeting concurrent to May’s Reifen show in Essen, Germany. The meeting will take place between 10.00am and 12.30pm on Wednesday, May 21 at the exhibition site’s Congress Centre South, Room L.
A key event of the general assembly will be the election of BIPAVER officers. It is expected that the candidate for the 2008/2009 president, Mr. Brenno Benalglia from Italy’s AIRP, will be elected to the position. Outgoing president, Mr. Peter Hülzer, from Germany’s BRV, will according to the BIPAVER charter assume the position of vice-president. Jan Driessen, from the Netherlands, is the candidate for the other vice-president position. Incumbent vice-president, Bandvulc’s Richard O’Connell, will resign from his position.
Supplier of OE alloy wheels, Superior Industries International, have announced a decrease in net sales for the quarter period to March 31, 2008, but despite this a marked increase in net income. Net income, at US$3.71 million, delivered a result of $0.12 per diluted share compared to net income of $0.08 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2007. Commenting on these results, company chairman and CEO Steven Borick said: “The benefits of our hard work these past few years to optimise our manufacturing performance have continued into 2008. Reflecting our continued progress in improving production efficiencies in our plants, we delivered sharply higher gross margin for this year’s first quarter versus the prior year despite the impact of the American Axle strike on our shipments to GM.”
The Garage Equipment Association has elected Gary Shepherd as its new president. The association’s new head also recently announced that the organisation plans to start training and assessing Vehicle Lift Engineers. Speaking at the GEA annual dinner, Shepherd said: “The scheme will be designed to ensure high standards of safe, efficient and effective lift installation and maintenance across the UK. Engineers will be trained and then assessed at the GEA offices in Daventry, only those achieving above 80 per cent during the final assessment will become GEA accredited.”
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