ZC Rubber has hosted its first European dealer meeting in Germany, designed to further development and marketing strategy in the market. Hosting “hundreds of partners and dealers,” Shen Jinrong, president of ZC Rubber, introduced the company mission: “To supply safe and value to global market”.
Bridgestone Canada Inc. (Bridgestone) is expanding its Canadian passenger and light truck tyre manufacturing facility in Joliette, Quebec, as part of a five-year investment that could total upwards of CA$300 million (£160 million). Groundbreaking for this multi-phase expansion of the facility is expected to occur this year; new plant equipment will be phased in over a five-year period in an effort to help the plant support the North American market and meet demand for larger diameter tyres, such as those fitted to modern pickup trucks and SUVs. The project will lift plant capacity by 3,000 tyres per day to bring daily production to 20,000 tyres by 2023.
Over the next two years, production capacity for 18-inch and larger high-performance tyres will increase by about 20 per cent at Yokohama rubber’s Shinshiro plant in Japan in order to meet growing demand for these highly profitable products. Work on a new plant production line will begin this May. This will go on stream in June 2017 and reach full capacity by the following April.
Bridgestone Corporation reported yesterday that plans to treble capacity at its Tatabánya plant in Hungary will be realised by 2020 rather than in the first half of 2017, as previously anticipated. The project to boost production capacity at the Bridgestone Tatabánya Termelö Kft facility from 6,000 to 18,000 passenger car tyres a day was announced in October 2012, and ground broke on the €267 million expansion the following summer.
Ukrainian tyre maker JSC Rosava says it has installed a new tyre building machine and universal stickers at its heavy tyre production facility. The company says the machine’s presence will enable it to raise its agricultural tyre production and expand its range by adding new, high-demand sizes. These additions include the sizes 420/70R24TL, 420/70R28 TL, 520/70R38 TL, 18,4R34, 14,9R24 and 600/65R30 TL.
Only quite recently Apollo Tyres Ltd gave word that truck and bus tyre production capacity at its factory Chennai, India would increase from 6,000 to around 9,000 tyres per day, yet the company has now announced a further truck and bus tyre capacity boost for the plant. A filing submitted to the BSE following a meeting of Apollo’s Board of Directors on 11 August shares the tyre maker’s plan of outlaying a capital expenditure of Rs 12 billion (£118.7 million) to further expand truck and bus radial capacity in Chennai from the currently planned 8,900 tyres per day to 12,000 tyres per day.
Unaudited financial results for the first quarter of Apollo Tyre Ltd’s 2015-16 financial year were released yesterday, and these show a year-on-year rise in the company’s operating and net profits despite lower net sales.
Yokohama Rubber’s first factory in India entered production last year with a capacity to produce 2,000 tyres a day, and local subsidiary Yokohama India is now looking to increase capacity to 8,000 tyres a day – some 2.8 million tyres a year.
Production capacity for high performance light truck and SUV tyres at Michelin’s Dothan factory in the US will increase by ten per cent when upgrades now being installed in the plant are completed in the summer of 2016. Michelin says it is investing US$22 million to upgrade the 35 year old plant, which currently employs 560 people. Approximately 40 new jobs will be created by the investment.
Linglong reports that the first truck and bus radials produced at the firm’s Rayong, Thailand production plant rolled off the manufacturing line at 9:28 on 28 May 2015. Construction of the truck tyre production line began in June 2014.
In late April Continental concluded an investment agreement with the Hefei provincial and local governments in China, and has now unveiled plans to significantly expand its passenger car tyre factory there. Annual production capacity will rise from the current level of 5 million tyres per year to 14 million by 2019. In addition, bicycle tyre production in Hefei will be boosted from around 2 million units per annum to 13 million pieces by 2025.
Construction of Apollo Tyres’ first European Greenfield plant in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary, officially began on 10 April 2015, with a foundation stone laying ceremony. The international tyre manufacturer’s facility will start production in early 2017. The facility will produce both, Apollo and Vredestein branded tyres and will cater to the entire European market.
No sooner had Shandong Deruibao Tire Co., Ltd. entered into apparent “restructuring” proceedings on 7 February then we at Tyres & Accessories started hearing about it on the grapevine (see page 40 for full coverage of this story). Of course, companies face difficulties in any business from time to time, but this case has particular resonance with many because it is emblematic of what is going in China. There are two things the market is interested in – what’s behind the pressures Deruibao are facing and what the knock-on effects will be.
German alloy wheel manufacturer Uniwheels has announced plans to expand its production operation in Poland by a further 2 million or so wheels. The original equipment supplier and manufacturer of the ATS, Rial, Alutec and Anzio aftermarket alloy rim brands produced over six million wheels at its two plants in Stalowa Wola last year; in addition to the aforementioned capacity boost, the erection of a third facility there will increase the site’s workforce with a further 250 jobs.
The statutory negotiations at Nokian Tyres’ Finnish factory concerning workers and staff in car tyre production, maintenance and quality departments ended on 9 October 2014. Adjustments to production capacity utilisation as well as cost savings will be achieved mainly with temporary lay-offs and transfers to new positions. In addition, a pension plan for two employees comes into effect.
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