US tyre pressure monitoring system developer Advantage PressurePro has entered into a partnership with telematics and web-based fleet management provider QA Technologies – a partnership it says is “set to bring exciting new advances in TPMS and Telematics integration”. QA Technologies has begun integrating the PressurePro TPMS to its AccutrAVL product.
Botswana based publication The Business Diary reports that a shortage of raw materials has prompted Dunlop Zimbabwe to extend its annual shutdown period, and this decision has led to unrest amongst the company’s workforce. The Apollo Tyres South Africa owned company was scheduled to re-open its factory on January 11, however company officials say production will now commence on February 11 – provided it has obtained the necessary raw materials by that time.
Neeraj Kanwar, managing director of Apollo Tyres Ltd, has been elected chairman of the Indian the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA). Kanwar was unanimously elected as the next chairman at the association’s Annual General Meeting yesterday (14 January 2010) and is by far the youngest ATMA Chairperson so far since its inception in 1975.
Although Apollo Tyres, as CFO Sunam Sarkar told Indian publication Outlook Business in December, decided to pass up on the acquisition of Mexico’s Tornel, it is by no means ready to stop its global growth. The magazine reports that plans for a presence in Eastern Europe are still on the agenda.
The laser etching process that Kumho showed off at last September’s Frankfurt Motor Show has landed the South Korean manufacturer an iF Product Design Award. The accolade from Germany’s International Forum Design, first introduced in 1954, is awarded upon the merits of a product’s design, technology, degree of innovation and brand value potential. A total of 2,486 entries from 1,081 companies in 39 countries were submitted for the latest round of awards. The awards are divided into 16 categories, and Kumho’s victory in the 2010 awards took place in the ‘Advanced Studies’ category.
The Kumho Asiana group has reportedly agreed to restructure Kumho Tire along with its Kumho Industrial subsidiary following the failed sale of Daewoo Engineering & Construction to two private equity firms. Had Jabez Partners and TR America purchased the company for US$2.4billion, Kumho would have found it easier to meet a $3.4 billion payment in January, but raising funds for a purchase at between KRW 20,000 and 24,000 (£10.40 and £12.50) per share proved more difficult than anticipated.
According to a survey conducted by Goodyear Dunlop in New Zealand, some 16 per cent of all vehicles in the country’s major centres have at least one unroadworthy tyre. The 1,600 vehicles surveyed in the cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch showed a 40 per cent increase in tyre-related defects over a similar survey conducted in 1999.
As a result of Alliance Tire Group’s purchase of worldwide rights to the Galaxy brand from GPX International Inc., Trelleborg Wheel Systems will consequently stop distributing Galaxy-brand off-the-road tyres in Europe. Trelleborg states it continue to support its customers with the Galaxy brand until the new owner takes over.
Following the closure of a share swap agreement between Slovak Republic based CBp Carbon Industries, Inc and US company Carbon Green Inc. (formerly known as Neema Inc.), both companies will effectively hold an ownership stake in CBp Carbon subsidiary Greenwood Commerce Ltd, who now holds the worldwide exclusive ownership rights to a proprietary technology that allegedly enables the by-products of tyre pyrolysis to be converted into recovered steel, a diesel equivalent oil that can be employed to generate green electricity in many countries, a nano-particle compound said to be a tyre industry-tested and accepted competitive substitute for commercial carbon black, and a clean-burning gas Greenwood will use to power its processing plants.
Singapore-based online tyre retailer Tyrepac announced the official launch of Tyrepac China (www.tyrepac.com.cn) on 8 December. Like the many similar services operating across European and World markets, upon purchase and payment online, consumers can select from a list of appointed retailers to have their tyres changed, or have them delivered to a location of their choice. The difference is that this service is based in the key production and emerging replacement market of China.
In the New Year Kwik-Fit Fleet is expanding its range of services with launch of its Vehicle Health Checks – a service it says will help companies comply with duty of care legislation. Specifically, Kwik-Fit Fleet says the checks are being launched to meet fleet customer demand to help them with their occupational road risk management compliance obligations under health and safety legislation. The company is already operating a pilot scheme with two fleet customers ahead of the planned January 2010 roll out of the service for both outright purchase fleets and contract hire and leasing companies.
Online tyre retailer Delticom has become the exclusive German distributor of the Maxima tyre brand. Delticom will distribute this second brand from Slovenian motorcycle tyre manufacturer Savatech through four of its websites, and will also add the Sava brand to its product portfolio. Through its supply of the Maxima brand, Delticom says it hopes to appeal to price-conscious consumers who wish to purchase quality, European-made tyres.
A consumer poll indicates that half of all UK drivers put skidding on wet roads as their worst nightmare – and a the huge increase in rainfall in the past few weeks across the country, they have grounds to be concerned. Almost 1,000 motorists took part in the poll CCB fast.MAP undertook in November for the mytyres.co.uk online tyre retail portal, and 55 per cent put skidding out of control as their worst nightmare. Breaking down on the road was the second highest fear and, interestingly, getting a puncture only concerned three per cent of motorists.
Kwik-Fit expresses concern that almost a third of car owning students would rather blow their budget on a night out than fix a tyre. Admittedly, finances are often tight while studying, but the fast fit giant points out it’s not just necessities such as books, rent and food that are taking priority over car maintenance. Kwik-Fit reveals the shameful statistic that 32 per cent of car owning students confessed that they’d choose to blow their last £50 on a big night out rather than replace an illegal tyre – even if it meant driving home on it the next day.
Performance Wheels Ltd, distributors of the award winning Tyresure aftermarket tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) have been appointed as the official UK distributor for the ATEQ range of TPMS trigger tools, headed by the capable new ATEQ VT55 OBDII. ATEQ is reportedly the global number one supplier of TPMS trigger and activation tools both for OEM assembly lines and aftermarket ‘fast fit’ and tuning shops. With offices in 22 countries and over 5,000 major customers, their range is already used and approved in over 270 OEM installations worldwide. Their sales figures of over 30,000 TPMS products annually reflect the fact that they are used on almost every production line of almost every global manufacturer.
With TPMS set to become a legal requirement by 2012, company representatives said the timing of the deal is perfect. The ATEQ units simply plug into any cars OBDII port to allow the unit to interrogate and update the integrated central electronics system to ‘marry’ any new TPMS sensors to the car. Not only is the ATEQ hardware compatible with ALL currently known TPMS sensors, but it also has in-built synchronisation software that ensures that it stays up to date with all new TPMS sensors introduced each year. Already in use at franchise level with manufacturers like Chrysler and Peugeot, the tool can communicate with manufacturers’ systems like Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan to name but a few.
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