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Medicine Hat Goodyear to Shut Temporarily

The Goodyear plant in Medicine Hat, Canada – to the East of Calgary – has announced that it will shut down production temporarily next month. The factory will shut for one week, starting on 13 April. The plant is also set to lose 35 full-time jobs on 28 March, while it recently cut its working week to five days. The company says that stagnant demand and a struggling automotive sector have led to the decision, while plant manager Mike MacGregor has quashed rumours that staff numbers could be cut by a further 40-50, though he told local newspaper the Medicine Hat News that there is a possibility that the plant will shave another day off its already-curtailed working week. “What we’re trying to do is protect the remaining workforce,” he concluded.

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

RMA Believes Worst Not Over as US Shipments Fall Further

RMA says that 2009 US tyre shipments will fall more than 7 per cent, a sharp drop that follows a 9 per cent overall decrease in 2008. RMA projects that total tyre shipments will decline by some 21 million units to 261 million tyres, “a level last experienced in 1993 and approximately 60 million units fewer than the 321 million unit peak in 2000,” the group said.

The fall-off is driven by “continued erosion of consumer confidence, higher unemployment, depressed auto sales, a decline in vehicle miles travelled and downward revisions in domestic economic conditions for both the consumer and commercial sectors,” RMA said in a statement. (Tire Review/Akron)

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Pall-Ex Chooses CSEasy Tyres

Pall-Ex has switched its forklift truck fleet to Continental CSEasy tyres. Pall-Ex’s headquarters in Ellistown in Leicestershire operates 36 fork lift trucks running on a 24 hour shift operation. Barloworld in partnership with Continental Tyres introduced the new, award winning CSEasy to the site and the results have reportedly shown a number of key benefits for Pall-Ex.

Tony Mellor, commercial director, said: ”Both tyre punctures and truck downtime were a real concern for us at Pall-Ex. The CSEasy tyre can be mounted and demounted without the use of a press, safely in the on-site Barloworld workshop. This saves us costly downtime and the need for expensive equipment. It also means that we are able to change tyres 24/7 keeping our operation moving round the clock.

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Dons Red for Comic Relief

Friday 13 March saw Goodyear employees and visitors to the company’s West Midlands sites show support for Comic Relief and Red Nose Day by donning red clothes and participating in a range of money-raising activities. The tyre maker not only hosted a dress down day, cake sales, competitions and raffles; a visit from business forum Vistage.

Consisting of a group of specially selected chief executives who share experience and knowledge in order to develop their own and members businesses, Vistage members were showcasing best practice information, including a focus on the Goodyear Dunlop’s successful Dunlop Motorsport operations. Delegates took an exclusive tour of Dunlop Motorsport’s Birmingham factory, seeing at first hand the manufacturing process and business methods used to produce the segment’s championship winning car and motorbike tyres for series such as the British Touring Car Championship, Le Mans and Motor GP.

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

R H Claydon Relocates Scunthorpe Warehouse

R H Claydon has announced that it has relocated its Scunthorpe wholesale warehouse operation. R H Cladon has occupied a location in the Flixborough Industrial Estate since 1990 and has now “well out grown the site [and] moved to a larger location on the same industrial park.” The new branch occupies some 43,000 square feet and is served by a newly built loading bay to handle container traffic. This warehouse will better serve an expanded area that runs from the East Midlands north and east to the Scottish Border.

The location is said to have a larger holding capacity that will initially serve five delivery vans. This and the company’s other sales and service branches (at Bury St Edmunds, Swindon, Stockport and Falkirk) stock passenger, van, 4X4, light and heavy truck, agricultural, construction, industrial, small implement, Turf and ATV tyres – not to mention tubes and more.

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Teen Drivers Get Lessons from Michelin, Tire Rack

Michelin North America teamed with Tire Rack last weekend on a special teen driver instruction program at its test track in Laurens, South Carolina.

Thirty teenage drivers attended a comprehensive day-long course with a certified Tire Rack Street Survival driving coach, learning real-world vehicle control techniques. Students practiced vehicle maneuvering through acceleration, turning and braking exercises, and received classroom instruction as well.

Street Survival was formed in April 2002 by the BMW Car Club of America Foundation. Tire Rack signed on as a title sponsor in 2006. (Tire Review/Akron)

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

New All-Season Line from Toyo

Toyo Tire USA has launched the Extensa A/S, an all-season line targeting family cars and minivans. The new product features Toyo’s Tmode computer design technology, a symmetrical, non-directional tread design for easy rotation and tread life, shoulder ribs connected to shoulder blocks for stability, four circumferential grooves for stability and water dispersion, and full-depth multi-wave sipes to fight irregular wear and for all weather traction.

Available initially in 19 different 13- to 17-inch sizes, the Extensa A/S has a UTQG rating of 620 AB for its S- and T-rated sizes, and 360 AA for H-rated sizes. Another 27 sizes will be added later this year, Toyo said. (Tire Review/Akron)

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Accuride Names Interim CFO

James Woodward Jr. has joined Accuride as interim senior vice president and CFO. He replaces David Armstrong, who is leaving the company to accept an assignment with his church. Most recently Woodward served as executive vice president, CFO and treasurer of Joy Global Inc. (Tie Review/Akron)

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Yokohama USA to Introduce Eco-Friendly GT3 Tyre

Yokohama has announced that it will introduce a series-wide environmentally-friendly race tyre in the GT3 Challenge. Mark Chung, the company’s US director, corporate strategy and planning, stated, “The orange oil technology is extremely exciting for our race programme; reducing petroleum inputs by approximately 10 per cent and increasing recyclability while maintaining the high performance levels of previous race slick compounds.”

17th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Proposes Temporary Wolverhampton Layoffs

Local news source The Express and Star has reported that Goodyear has proposed a series of temporary lay-offs to around 300 staff in Wolverhampton. The paper quotes Cyril Barrett, the branch chairman of union Unite, saying that it is likely that staff will take a total of 68 “lay-off days” spread through 2009. According to the report, 29 of these days will be paid – 14 at 60 per cent, 15 at £21.50 per day – while the remaining lay-off days would be covered by holidays and 25 days without pay.

Goodyear told the newspaper that the company is waiting for union feedback on the proposal.

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

New Pirelli Financial and Strategic Review Released

A new financial and strategic report on Pirelli has been made available by analysts Companies and Markets. The firm promises to present “an in-depth business, strategic and financial analysis of Pirelli, providing “a comprehensive insight into the company, including business structure and operations, executive biographies and key competitors. The hallmark of the report is the detailed strategic analysis and views on the company.”

In addition to the provision of a “one-stop-shop” to understanding Pirelli, the review offers a financial, strategic and operational SWOT analysis; business structure, history and product information; and “financial ratios for the past five years as well as interim ratios for the last four quarters,” including profitability, margins and returns, liquidity and leverage, financial position and efficiency.

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Minor Fire at Cooper Tire Plant

Cooper Tire’s Tupelo experienced a minor fire on Saturday 14 March, after an apparent mishap with some welding work. According to WTVA.com, no injuries were reported, but “several holes had to be cut in the roof by firemen to get the fire out.” As a result the first is said to have caused “an early shutdown of the plant, just ahead of a scheduled shutdown for this week.”

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Tata Nano Tyre Sizes Revealed

Tata Motors is expected to launch its pint-size “Nano” car into the Indian automotive market on 23 March, but what tyre/wheel sizes will run on? According to online sources, the Nano will come in a range of four variants (base, mid level CX and top end LX) and its 0.6 litre engine will drive four 12-inch wheels. Tyres sizes are set to be 135/70 R12 on the front and spare; and 155/65 R12 on the rear. Pressures will be set to 26 PSi (Front), 28 PSi (Rear). According to other automotive sources, the Nano is not expected to arrive in Europe until sometime around 2011, by which time the currently model is likely to be in the Nano 2.0 series.

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Fast Car Hails ContiSportContact 3 Best Tyre For Safety

Fast Car magazine has awarded Continental’s ContiSportContact 3 a top prize in its Best for Safety category. The Fast Car Awards purport to celebrate “the best of the best in the tuning industry”. The magazine commented: “Safe is the name of the game with Continental Tyres and their wet weather performance is the absolute best. The ContiSportContact 3 tyre is focused on serving up awesome handling for powerful performance cars. We like Continental tyres a lot.”

Scott Benbow, product manager at Continental, added: “The ContiSportContact 3 is no stranger to winning awards and we are really pleased to add to this collection with the sought after Fast Car honour. Safety is always our main focus when designing a tyre so to be recognised specifically for this is great.”

The ContiSportContact 3 uses a supple third generation silica compound which the company says allows for supreme wet braking performance. A high proportion of rubber on the outer shoulder and a stiff asymmetrical tread pattern is designed to ensure optimum performance handling.

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Clairoix Tyre Workers ‘Egg’ Bosses

A small number of workers at Continental AG’s Clairoix passenger tyre factory reportedly egged their bosses in a meeting taking place in nearby Reims. According to the AFP news agency, hundreds of angry workers gathered outside the hotel in which the meeting was being held to protest at the recently announced closure of the Clairoix plant.

On 12 March French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he wished to make sure Continental was keeping its promises and respecting French legal procedures. However, the Journal du Dimanche quoted Continental vice president responsible for passenger car/light truck tyres, Bernhard Trilken, as saying Continental AG “scrupulously” followed French law with relation to the announced plant closure.

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors