Yokohama Rubber has continued its Forever Forest tree planting programme with a first-phase planting ceremony at its Y.T. Rubber natural rubber processing factory in Thailand’s Surat Thani Province. Some 400 people were present for the occasion on August 6, including Y. T. Rubber president Yoshio Amano, company employees plus local residents and school pupils. Around 1,900 trees of 27 varieties were planted.
Michelin Thailand has renewed its logistics contract with Ceva for three years, to handle inbound tyres from Michelin’s production plants into warehouse facilities in three main locations across Thailand; Laemchabang, Nongkea and Nongree.
Dow Jones is reporting today that a fire has stopped production at a Bridgestone tyre plant in Tokyo. While details are thin on the ground the Dow report suggests the fire started at around 20:00 local time on 1 August and was extinguished just after midnight on 2 August. There were no reports of injuries, and the cause of the fire and its impact remains unknown.
Canadian firm Environmental Waste International Inc. has completed testing of its TR900 Pilot Plant. This first trial of the company’s latest tyre recycling machine involved the processing of 20 tyres. EWS says the trial “fully met” its expectations and demonstrated the technical viability of a production scaled TR900 system.
Women in Saudi Arabia are now excluded from working in tyre manufacturing jobs following the release of a list of over 20 jobs deemed unsuitable by the country’s Ministry of Labour. Job number ten on the list compiled by labour minister Adel Fakeih is “Working in the rubber industry for making tyres,” and at a press conference Fakeih claimed the aim is to prevent women from working in jobs they may not be physically suited to undertake. “The Saudi woman has every right to work,” Fakeih stated. “We are only implementing regulations that will protect her and ensure her rights.”
Tyre production at Goodyear’s Union City, Tennessee plant has come to an end. Plans to close the factory by the end of the year were announced in February, yet production has ceased even soon, it appears, than the tyre maker itself originally anticipated. “When we announced our intention to close the plant, we expected the shutdown would occur by year-end,” stated Goodyear chairman and CEO Richard J. Kramer. “Since then, the product transfers to the other Goodyear plants have been completed more quickly than expected. We are now able to meet the needs of our consumer tyre customers without further production in Union City.”
After ending the 2010-11 financial year with a net loss of Rs 2.1 billion (£29.1 million), India’s Kesoram Industries has announced its intention to restructure the management of its Birla Tyres business unit and increase its focus on passenger car and two-wheeler tyre production. In a statement, Kesoram director (and daughter of company head Basant Kumar Birla) Manjushree Khaitan said “the company is hopeful of rebounding this year as it is in the process of putting in a recovery plan in place which includes among other things a strong management team for the tyre division, higher capacity utilisation, a more aggressive marketing policy and a change in the product mix towards high margin passenger car and two-wheeler tyres.”
Since being relaunched in its present trading format eight years ago, Rochdale-based Carter international says it has evolved into a “leading manufacturers of mixing room machinery” and other tyre manufacturing products; the upwards curve in the company’s development has led to the organisation’s current plan to relocate to a greenfield site. Carter says its “ongoing success in a highly competitive market” has encouraged the company to improve its manufacturing and operational facilities for greater “professionalism and efficiency”.
Various Balkan region news sources have reported Cooper Tire & Rubber’s intention to invest in Serbia’s Trayal. The US firm’s plans apparently involve investing 50 million euros in Trayal over the next two years and increasing production from one million to 3.4 million tyres during that time and then boosting it to seven million over the subsequent two years.
Despite a later than originally anticipated timeframe, the manufacture of Vredestein brand tyres is still expected to begin in India before the end of 2011. Satish Sharma, the chief of India operations for Vredestein parent company Apollo Tyres, has been quoted as saying “we may start rolling out Vredestein tyres from our Chennai or Vadodara factory in three to six months.” He noted, however, that initial production quantities would be very low.
US chemicals company Solutia Inc. reports having reshaped its rubber chemicals portfolio. Although specific details about this change have not been publicised, the company says the reshaping shows a reaffirmation of its “commitment to high-value, market-leading rubber chemicals,” including its Santoflex antigradants, which are used in the production of tyres, belts, hoses, cables and other products.
Sibur-Russian Tyres reports it has begun OEM shipments of Cordiant brand tyres to the Volkswagen plant in Kaluga, some 100 miles southwest of Moscow. The tyres will be fitted as original equipment on Polo saloons built at the factory, with the first Cordiant equipped cars rolling off the production line in June. The Russian tyre maker anticipates delivering up to 100,000 Cordiant tyres for the Polo and other Volkswagen Group cars by the end of the year.
Production at MRF Tyres’ seventh factory in India is expected to begin in the coming months. At the opening of a company sales and service outlet in the city of Kolkata, MRF deputy general manager Rajat K. Nangia commented that operations at the Rs 9 billion (£121 million) truck tyre and passenger car radial plant in Thiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu state would commence before the end of the year. Nangia also reported on the tyre maker’s intention to raise US$110 million through the sale of ten year bonds; Nangia said the bond sale process is already underway and a portion of the funds raised will be utilised to increase capacity expansion in each of the company’s factories.
Korean tyre manufacturer Nexen Tyres has announced the availability of its new high-performance summer tyre with what the company terms “smooth-run features”. Nexen believes the CP661 (TR) offers “noticeable energy savings” and “excellent handling on both wet and dry surfaces”. The range comprises twenty-five sizes from 13” to 17” with aspect ratios between 55 and 70 and is made at Nexen’s Korea and China production facilities. A CP661 tyre is currently fitted as OE on the KIA Soul and the KIA Forte model.
Those wishing to catch the Green Wave don’t have long to wait – the global tree planting campaign advocated by the United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity is taking place on May 22 – the International Day for Biological Diversity. In Japan, however, the Green Wave has already been washing over the land for more than two months, as the country’s government declared the 16 weeks between March 1 and June 15 its “Green Wave 2011” period. During this time schools, companies and organisations have been encouraged to carry out tree planting campaigns. It goes without saying that Yokohama Rubber, whose Forever Forest programme is now in its fourth year, has embraced the programme.
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