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40% of Michelin Workforce in High Cost Countries to Leave between 2007 and 2012

Michelin has released a “pyramid of age” for its French workforce. The company employs 22,000 workers (equivalent full time) in its home market, of which some 12,000 are engaged in production. Approximately 1,0000 will retire every year for the next decade. Taking into account a natural attrition of two per cent per annum, 1,500 French workers will leave Michelin each year. This equates to 30 per cent of the 5,000 employees that will leave the group per annum in high cost countries. In total around 30,000 people are anticipated to leave the Michelin Group in the six years between 2007 and 2012, some 40 per cent of the company’s tyre workforce in high cost countries.

6th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Ends Talks With MAG Over Clairoix Plant

Talks between Continental AG and MAG, a Dubai-based potential buyer of the company’s tyre technology and passenger/light truck tyre manufacturing facility in Clairoix, France, have ended. According to Continental, the talks “mutually ceased” with no agreement reached. The parties held intensive discussions, but finally concluded that it was not possible to reach common ground on pursuing further negotiations.

“We would have liked to have become involved in the tyre manufacturing business as an extension to our value-chain activities which are strongly focused on the trade sector. Using the knowledge we have at present we shall continue to examine this approach. We specifically thank the French government for its commitment and support while we were deliberating on the matter, and we shall keep France in our minds as a key location for future business plans”, said Dr Fawaz Sabri vice chairman of MAG

Dr Bernhard Trilken, responsible for Continental`s global passenger and light truck tyre production, added: “It was not possible to enter into concrete negotiations on the basis of jointly defined framework conditions. The two parties reached the same conclusion and, at that point, agreed to terminate the sales talks.”

6th October 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Carlisle Pirelli Workers Given Increase in Hours

Workers at Pirelli’s plant in Carlisle have been given increased hours, according to local newspaper, News & Star, continuing that the Italian manufacturer has lifted its suspension of the ‘guaranteed week’ thanks to a “stabilisation” of orders in the European market. The company also sounded a note of caution, saying that the situation could fluctuate in the coming months with the market.

30th September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Trayal Workers Strike Over Unpaid Wages

Workers at the Serbian Trayal tyre factory have gone on strike over unpaid wages. Production is said to be at a standstill. According to the Sofia News Agency, 700 of the 2100 total work force have gathered at the factory gate, near where the managers’ offices are, and demanded immediate payment. The local union leader stated that this is their last chance to accomplish anything before the busy winter season takes hold.

29th September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Strike Disrupts JK Tyre

Production at JK Tyres’ plant in Kankroli, Rajasthan, were disrupted this past weekend by a sit-in strike by a group of plant workers.

There was no word on the size of the strike or the impact it had on actual tyre production. Efforts were being made to quell the strike, reports said. (Tire Review)

29th September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Layoffs Announced at Closing MNA Factory

In preparation for the closure of its Opelika, Alabama factory at the end of October, Michelin North America's BFGoodrich Tire Manufacturing has announced the layoffs of approximately 350 production employees, effective October 2. According to Lynn Mann, MNA director of external communications, the layoffs are part of the company’s “rampdown activities”.

28th September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Kumho to Build China Rubber Accelerator Plant

Kumho Petrochemical intends to construct a facility for the production of rubber accelerator in southwest China. The company announced on September 23 that it will spend 44 billion won (£22.4 million) to build the plant by the first quarter of 2011. The Chongqing plant is expected to annually produce 22,000 tonnes of rubber accelerator, a substance used during the vulcanisation process.

23rd September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

China Auto Industry Faces Overcapacity

China's auto industry has shown signs of overcapacity, but automakers continues planning further expansion, Chinese state news agency Xinhua has reported that the country’s largest car makers face overproduction, but have further expansion plans anyway. China’s car production capacity is predicted to exceed 16 million units by 2012.

Leading auto companies, including SAIC Motor, FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor and Changan Auto, have each announced multi-million unit sales targets for the coming two years. Chery Auto, for example, has set an output and sales goal of 1 million units by 2012. Beijing Auto is aiming at output and sales of 1.5 million units in 2010 and 2 million in 2011.

In the auto industry stimulus plan unveiled in March, China set a target of annually producing 500,000 electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles in 2009-2011, with new-energy vehicle sales making up 5 percent of total passenger vehicle sales.

22nd September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

SMMT Calls for Extension to Scrappage Scheme

The SMMT has written to business secretary Lord Mandelson asking for an extension to the scrappage scheme, which is otherwise predicted to end in November. SMMT is asking for the scheme to be extended through to the original closing date of the end of February 2010, to counter the likely negative impacts of a return to the higher rate of VAT and the introduction of the first year VED rates. After 15 months of consecutive decline in the new car market, the scrappage incentive scheme has reignited demand, says the SMMT, resulting in year-on-year growth in July and August and a dramatic cut in the rate of decline in vehicle production.

Since it began over 100,000 new vehicles have been registered under the scrappage scheme, with an order bank of a further 100,000 suggesting the scheme will run out of funding in late October/early November. 76 per cent of cars bought under the scrappage scheme were classified in the Mini or Supermini segments.

SMMT now forecasts the new car market to end 2009 at 1.85 million units, above pre-scrappage forecasts but well below the 2.47 million pre-recession five year average. One fifth of the cars registered were either built in the UK or have an engine produced here.

18th September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

11-Year Olds Blamed For US Tyre Fire

Two 11-year old girls were arrested on suspicion of starting a fire which destroyed a warehouse storing shredded tyres ready to be recycled. The warehouse, owned by Joliet, Illinois-based tyre recycler Tire Grinder Transporters, was ablaze for five hours before firefighters brought it under control.

1st September 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Lockout Declared at South Korean Kumho Plants

International News

The Korea Times has reported lockouts at three of Kumho’s facilities in South Korea. According to the paper, the company lockouts – the first Kumho has enacted in 15 years – began on August 25 in response to a union strike against its downsizing plan. Employee access to the Gwangju, Gokseong and Pyeongtaek facilities was blocked as of 4am on August 25, following 20 failed negotiation sessions.

25th August 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Driving Towards a Brighter Future with LEDs

Continental foresees an end to the days when cars with only one working headlight trawl our roads and motorways at night: The company is looking towards a brighter future in which light emitting diodes (LED) will be utilised in headlight systems that last the entire life of a car. And since LEDs also use less energy than conventional headlight bulbs, both the operating and maintenance costs of such a system will be lower.

21st August 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bekaert Closes US Bead Wire Plant

The tyre manufacturing downturn in North America has claimed another victim. Bekaert has announced the closure of its Clarksdale, Mississippi bead wire plant. According to plant manager Gary Downey, the quantity tyre imports entering the US, and their affect on North American tyre production, has played a role in the decision to close the plant and eliminate 76 jobs. Production from Clarksdale will be integrated into Bekaert's Rome, Georgia, and Shelbyville, Kentucky facilities in the coming months.

18th August 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Hankook Ruled Liable for Employee Deaths

A provincial court in Korea has found factory chiefs and senior researchers of Hankook Tire guilty failing to prevent a series of work related deaths. The Korea Times reports that on August 14 the Daejeon District Court sentenced a factory chief, identified as Lee, 52, to eight months imprisonment, which was suspended for two years, and fined him three million won (£1.46 million). Another factory manager, Jung, 47, was given six months in prison, suspended for two years, plus a fine of two million won. The two men worked at Hankook’s Daejeon and Geumsan factories, where 14 workers died within 17 months.

17th August 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli Freezes China Investment

The changes that have occurred in global markets since last year have prompted Pirelli to mothball its planned US$100 million investment in China. In July 2008 the company announced it would invest this sum in China over a two-year period in order to double production capacity by 2011. Yet despite at 40 per cent year-on-year increase in sales within China during the first half of 2009, weak global demand has led to a rethink in Milan.

6th August 2009/by Tyrepress Editors