Retreading
A £3.9 million grant awarded to Michelin through the Advantage West Midlands regional development agency for the improvement of its Stoke-on-Trent facility has been confirmed by the Department for Innovation and Skills. The grant will allow the French manufacturer to make plans for the modernisation of the site.
The first major exhibitors at the first Tyrexpo India in Chennai on 5-7 July 2011 have been announced. Exhibition organiser ECI International states that Balkrishna Tyres (BKT), Elgi Rubber and Omni United have become the first major companies to commit to supporting the inaugural staging of the new tyre and equipment exhibition. ECI says the ground-breaking event reflects India’s fast-growing importance and influence in the global tyre, rubber and equipment market.
Having opened late in 2009, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres’ joint venture distribution and retreading facility, Dunlop Taikoo (Jinjiang) Aircraft Tyres Company Limited is expanding its sales department in anticipation of coming growth in Chinese aeronautics. The company has appointed Jenny Chen as a technical sales manager, joining the company from the Guangzhou office of P&R International, where for over four years she was business development manager with responsibility for the Chinese aviation marketplace. She is tasked with generating new business as well as providing account management to existing airline and MRO customers throughout China.
Bridgestone UK and Bandag attended this year’s Tip-ex show in Harrogate for the first time since the two companies’ merger. And what’s more the company reports that it gained “55 firm leads and enquiries to follow up,” surpassing all expectations. Ross Medlyn, Bandag franchise manger for UK and Ireland commented: “Bandag attended the show two years ago and it was a real success, so we wanted to take the opportunity to present Bridgestone and Bandag under one umbrella for the first time at Tip-ex 2010."
Although most likely uttered out of ignorance rather than malice, comments made by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin have the potential to tarnish the reputation of retreaders throughout the US. During a speech at the Iowa Democratic Party’s state convention on June 12, Harking referred to a Republican party candidate as a ‘retread’ – an insult that, you may be amazed to learn, has gained a measure of popularity on the other side of the Atlantic – and then continued by saying “and the problem with retreads is that they have a tendency to blow out and cause a lot of wrecks.”
Rösler Group celebrated the OTR tyre business’ 50th anniversary during the recent Reifen 2010 trade fair. Customers, partner businesses and representatives of companies from around the world came to celebrate with company founder, Paul Roesler, Sr. His sons Paul, Jr. and Martin Rösler who have been guiding the company for the past 20 years were in attendance as were employees from Germany and Australia. And according to the company, its involvement in this year’s Essen show has been “a complete success for the entire Rösler Group.”
Marangoni Retreading Systems is venturing into new commercial ground after establishing a cooperation agreement with Marathon, part of the Leader Rubber group in South Africa. According to the retreading systems manufacturer, partnering with Marathon opens the door to two million unit-strong South African new tyre/retread market. Marangoni Retreading Systems and Marathon expect to complete South African market penetration by the end of 2011.
The agreement see Marathon provide the distribution platform and sales support to partners producing retreads with the Ringtread system, which is seen as a quality and cost saving response to the price-based market made up largely of Far Eastern products.
Bridgestone has introduced a new Bandag website highlighting its retread product portfolio for truck and bus fleets in Europe. According to the tyre maker, the www.bandag.eu site carries a ‘stronger message’ for end users, with more qualitative retread and product information, including the latest document downloads. The structure is built around Bandag’s Smart Choice marketing concept that provides an explanation as to why Bandag retreads are the most reliable, economical, natural and dependable retread choice on the tyre market.
Birmingham-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres had a royal visitor today (7 June) when the company welcomed HRH The Duke of York to its head office and manufacturing site in Erdington. The company is celebrating its centenary this year. Prince Andrew toured the company’s offices, factory and testing facility, where new products are being developed for aircraft including the Embraer E-Jets family, the Airbus A320, the Eurofighter and Airbus Military A400M transport aircraft.
As Reifen 2010 draws to a close, organising company Messe Essen is hailing the event as a great success after the company announced that provisional results for the 26th Reifen event show a record 600 exhibitors from 42 countries and over 18,000 trade visitors attended the tyre, retread and vulcanisation related expo. With guests from 127 countries, the fair also set a record also with regard to the internationality of the visitors.
60 per cent of Reifen 2010 visitors travelled to Essen from abroad. International visitors came primarily from Europe (75 per cent), followed by Asia, Africa, America and Australia. 88 per cent of the total visitors are said to have been decision-takers. And the statistics say the show was good for business too, with a third of the visitors having already ordered something and nearly half of the visitors having prepared deals which they want to complete after the fair.
Michelin is seeking Chinese government approval to relocate its Shenyang plant to a larger site to allow for capacity expansion, according to a China Daily report. "We have to relocate the Shenyang factory for a really big capacity expansion in both truck and bus tyres as well as passenger car tyres, considering the growing demand in China's automobile market," Michelin managing general partner Michel Rollier is quoted as saying.
Wittmund, Germany based Reifen – Center Hofdmann celebrated its 25th anniversary on 24 April 2010. The company, which Brazil-based retreading materials supplier Vipal Europe described as “a long term customer,” recently opened a new production hall focussing on the repair and retreading of truck, agricultural and earthmover tyres. This production line was established following the transfer and centralisation of the company’s equipment from its previous premises. In addition, since April, the company has also stocked retreading materials in the new production hall.
In order to address increasing European market demand for passenger car and truck tyres, the Goodyear Dunlop group is increasing production volume at its facility in Wittlich, Germany. To facilitate a higher volume the plant is being expanded and an additional 90 jobs will be created at Wittlich by September 2010.
ValvePal has joined the Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau (TRIB). TRIB described the company as an innovator in developing products to help trucking fleets, owner/operators and company drivers better maintain the air pressure in their tyres.
German software house PC-Soft has announced plans to show its fa/r software designed for managing retreading processes at June’s Reifen 2010 show. According to the company, PC-Soft designed the comprehensive fa/r system solution specifically for the requirements of the retread industry.
“Our customers benefit from the practical illustration of their processes (e.g. buffing, building) and the seamless integration of production, storage and management, automatic documentation and therefore the optimization of the whole process. Our focus is securing your productivity and flexible response capability to deliver as soon as possible and at optimum production,” company representatives commented in their promotional literature.
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