Retreading
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has appointed Mike Askew as chief executive officer. He joins the firm from APPH Group, a company that designs and manufactures hydraulic systems and landing gears for commercial and military aircraft. Askew had been managing director at APPH for almost three years and before that he held senior positions at Doncasters and GKN Westland Helicopters.
Marangoni’s retreading machinery business, Marangoni Meccanica reports that the company has completed the acquisition of retreading equipment manufacturer TRM. According to the company, this development represents the achievement of its targets of the “rationalization and innovation” of its business although further details about exactly what this means have not been released.
Long-time supporter of the Brityrex show, Kings Road Tyres had one of the exhibition’s more imposing stands, located next to the entrance, while associated brands, Uniroyal, for which it has the UK licence, Aeolus and Antyre – Chinese brands for which the wholesale part of KRT is the exclusive distributor in the UK – were present with stands of their own. Added to the “multi-brand presence” promised by Purchasing and Marketing manager, Tim Bader on the company’s own stand, featuring “the latest from Matador, Taurus, Cooper 4×4 and Aeolus Truck Tyres,” the company represented its truck, bus, agricultural, industrial and 4×4 ranges strongly.
Last week, Marangoni asked unions to approve a restructuring plan and proposed investment of 2.7 million euros into its retreading operations. According to Tyrepress.com’s Italian sister site PneusNews.it, the proposal includes a major revision of the Rovereto location’s truck tyre retreading operation. Marangoni Group ended 2011 with 7.9 million euros of losses, which are said to be mainly due to financial charges and the tax burden.
Bridgestone’s own Tyre Pressure Management System (TPMS) is currently being rolled out across Europe with the aim of providing a more thorough pressure maintenance service to customers. The system is made up of a valve-mounted sensor, a receiver gate mounted at the fleet site and a cloud based data system. The valve sensor emits a signal every six seconds relaying up-to-date pressure and temperature data to the gate receiver which collates the information and sends it to the Bridgestone database on a regular basis.
Lest anyone ask “who’s that giving this year’s speech”, NTDA chairman, Stephen Callow used the opportunity to give some background to how he came to hold this responsibility. In his words, he was like many in the wider tyre industry, “born with rubber in [his] veins.” He is a second generation tyre specialist thanks to the influence of his late father, Ronnie Callow. Ronnie, as Stephen explained in his inaugural chairman’s speech, was a “colourful” character – a description, he noted, that those who remember him would agree with.
Maxxis International will partner its official Malaysian distributor, Kian Hon Tyres in establishing the new Maxxis Asia Education Centre for truck and bus radial tyres in Penang, Malaysia. The companies said they plan to offer leading-edge training programmes at the new centre. Maxxis said that Kian Hon was selected for this new venture because of the “remarkable performance and aggressive expansion plans for its retreading plant”. The Maxxis Asia TBR Education Centre will be housed at Kian Hon’s new building in Nibong Tebal, and feature “state-of-the-art infrastructure and first-class equipment”, Maxxis said. The collaborative effort will constitute a total investment of US$20 million and will create between 200 and 400 new jobs.
The organisers of Brityrex, ECI International, have thanked exhibitors and visitors for their role in the latest show held at EventCity, Manchester 9-11 October. According to the company, Brityrex visitor numbers increased 5 per cent compared to the 2010 exhibition, with footfall growing to 2435 visitors.
Today is the third and final day of this year’s Brityrex show. The past two days have seen good visitor numbers at the new EventCity venue and Tyres & Accessories has enjoyed the opportunity to catch up on the latest UK industry news.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has added to Bandag retread products, the B710 FuelTech and B197 FuelTech, to its list of SmartWay verified low rolling resistance tyres. Announcing the additions, Bert Jones, Bridgestone Commercial Solutions manager, Product Marketing, TBR, commented: “We are constantly striving to develop eco-friendly products and processes while meeting the fuel saving needs of our customers.”
Nokian has unveiled a new addition to its Noktop Hakkapeliitta line with a product it calls the market’s first winter tread for wide trailer tyres. The Noktop Hakkapeliitta F is designed particularly for commercial vehicles with low trailers in international operation especially in Nordic conditions. The tread is available for tyre casings in size 445/45R19.5.
The flagship European brand of GiTi Tire, GT Radial may have been selling truck tyres into European markets for less than half a decade, but it has come a very long way in a short space of time. In one of its major markets, the UK, the company believes it now holds third place in terms of market share, saying that it now outstrips big players Hankook and Continental with upwards of 13 per cent of the country’s one million truck tyre unit sales. It believes it holds the global number four spot in the TBR segment. The latest step forwards – unveiled first at the CV Show in Birmingham and then to a wider European audience at Reifen 2012 in Essen, Germany – has been the introduction of the company’s REE Tread development, a hot cure retreading programme, with the GTR990 regional trailer pattern in size 385/65R22.5 representing GT Radial’s first commercial vehicle retread tyre. Significantly, the tyre uses the Chinese brand’s own made-in-China casings and is manufactured by “a renowned retreader located in the south-west of England”, in the company’s words.
Apart from the new venue, something else that you will quickly notice about this year’s Brityrex (which kicks off in just over a week's time) is the addition of a series of Tyre Talk seminars, designed to inform and provide a forum for discussion about some of the most pressing issues of the day.
Passenger car tyre retreading will have its own exhibition area at October’s Brityrex International show, with the announcement of a dedicated Retreading Pavilion. The Pavilion’s aim is to showcase the latest and best in car retreading, which has declined in terms of both UK manufacturing and market share in recent years.
A few years ago our March 2005 Retreading Special questioned the future of passenger car retreading in Europe after the decisions of Reif Reifen + Autotechnik GmbH and Nokian Tyres to exit the segment sounded a death knell for the industry. Despite this, a few companies have managed to cling on, but due to the huge rise in production of car tyres in so-called low-cost countries such as the Far East, retreads have struggled to compete at this end of the market. At the same time the trouble caused by the ongoing financial crisis has put pressures on businesses and consumers alike, with some markets such as the UK experiencing a sharp increase in the sales of part worn tyres. This in turn has led sections of the market to declare war on part worn tyres they see both as questionable in terms as safety and as a threat to the sales of better quality and higher value products. With all this in mind, Tyres & Accessories asks if there is a middle ground for passenger retreaders to occupy in the pressurised mature markets of Western Europe.
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