Bridgestone to Raise Truck and Bus Tyre Prices in Japan
As of March 1, 2011 prices of Bridgestone’s Japanese market truck and bus tyres will increase by an average of seven per cent. This increase applies to both summer and winter tyre lines.
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As of March 1, 2011 prices of Bridgestone’s Japanese market truck and bus tyres will increase by an average of seven per cent. This increase applies to both summer and winter tyre lines.
Between 27 and 27 November 2010, Interstate Tire & Rubber Co. hosted its augural Chinese Interstate distributor meeting at Nantong, China. Tyres & Accessories met up with vice president Theo de Vries and learnt that the company’s products, which are well-known in Europe, are gaining increased distribution in the Chinese domestic market.
Interstate’s first dealer meeting saw the company bring together more than 120 local Interstate distributors at the Grand International Hotel, Nantong. Distributors reportedly came from all over China and flew in from all several provinces across China -from the nearby Jiangsu to the remote Yunnan province. With Wholesale operations across all China and retail operations in the provinces of Jiangsu, Shanghai and Shandong, there is every indication that Interstate China is continuing to grow rapidly. For 2011 the company’s ambitious goal is to open 12 more retails outlets and increase sales by more than 40 per cent.
More fatal traffic accidents occur in India than in any other country. According to the World Health Organisation, the country’s road toll has risen consistently since the start of the last decade and now an average of 13 people die in road accidents every hour. A study by the Technical University of Munich puts the total death toll from traffic accidents in 2008 at 120,000 – a massive figure considering India has only 15 registered vehicles for every 1,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the UK boasts 458 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants yet figures from the Department for Transport show indicate just over 2,200 traffic fatalities in 2009: one third the vehicles of India along with a death toll more than fifty times lower.
Heard of Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Rubber Co., Ltd? We hadn’t either before last year’s Reifen China in Shanghai. However, after our brief introduction at last year’s show this year the company returned to the exhibition with another substantial stand in a similarly prime position. This time round company representatives brought with them news that despite being founded as recently as December 2008, it is already well on the well to producing 1 million truck tyres a year at its Xianyang truck tyre production plant. With the company's passenger car radial line due to break ground in 2013, this could be a production base to watch.
Following a article in this week’s Auto Express magazine claiming that some insurers regard the fitting of winter tyres as a vehicle modification, resulting in high insurance premiums for drivers, tyre industry representatives (including TyreSafe, NTDA and Roadsafe) have voiced the concern and disappointment.
“Many independent tests have proven that winter weather tyres are the safest option for drivers throughout the entire winter period, not just when we have snowfall and ice,” explains Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe. “To penalise drivers for taking a positive step to improve their safety on the road seems absurd. With the high number of drivers still being killed or injured in tyre related accidents each year, we should be actively encouraging responsible behaviour, such as the fitting of winter tyres.”
The National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India has dismissed allegations of rubber future price manipulation. Despite claims from Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association director-general Rajiv Budhraja regarding “evidence for the price manipulation of natural rubber on the NMCE,” the commodity exchange states prices for the raw material have risen due to an imbalance between demand and supply.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Bridgestone is working on technology that would radically reduce the amount of natural and synthetic rubber used in each tyre it produces – without having an impact on quality or performance. The tyre-maker hopes to have the technology, which also encompasses other tyre components, in place within ten years, effectively cutting its total rubber consumption by 50 per cent. Reducing input costs is the hot battlefield for manufacturers as they tackle fast rising oil and NR cost increases while seeing white-hot growth opportunities in South America and Asia. Recouping on those higher costs has grown more difficult because lingering poor economic conditions continue to pressure commercial and consumer customers.
Companiesandmarkets.com has announced the publishing of a new research report from China Research and Intelligence on the world’s top 50 tyre enterprises, 2010-2011. The report gives an analysis on the enterprises whose sales ranked among world's top 50 in 2009, including their operations, sales volume, development trend, and investment in China, amongst other things. The report ranks the world’s top 75 tyre enterprises in 2010 according to sales revenue relative to tyre manufacturing in 2009. The top three, somewhat unsurprisingly, remain as Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear, though the sales revenue of these three companies witnessed a double-digit drop on 2008 figures.
Maxxis is aiming to promote its credentials as a specialist in the field of off-road motorcycle tyres through sponsoring an editorial feature in the UK consumer magazine MOTO. The tyre maker describes the eight-page article as one that “spells out everything riders need to know about tyres to get the best out of their motocross bikes.” The article, ‘Tyre 101: the ultimate guide to rubber’, appears in the November issue of the magazine and explains why the failure to select of rubber fit for the intended purpose could lower a bike’s performance and potentially ruin an otherwise perfectly good set of tyres.
Through its ‘Forever Forest’ project, Yokohama Rubber hopes to transform the grounds at its factories into verdant, leafy areas. The company has held numerous tree planting ceremonies both in Japan and around the world, and now Yokohama Tire Corporation is going one step further by conducting a ‘Green Week’. Between November 30 and December 3 the US based operation is staging a series of eco-themed events, culminating with a visit from one of the world’s most famous ecologists.
Pirelli has agreed to take over the assets of Sibur Russian Tyres after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Russian Technologies and oil major Sibur Holding in Moscow on Friday 26 November. The deal, which is likely to position Pirelli as major player in the Russian market, comes after domestic market leader Niznekamskshina, (owned by another oil major, Tatneft) confirmed it had been in merger talks with Sibur in August. However, the latest MOU even goes as far as leaving the door open for a partnership that may offer Pirelli “a further opportunity for development and consolidation through the possible acquisition of or merger with Nizhnekamskshina.”
In future the 270 square mile state of Singapore will be home to no less than three major synthetic rubber production plants following Sumitomo Chemical’s decision to construct a solution styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) facility on Jurong Island. The Japanese firm intends to have the 40,000 tonne per annum capacity plant ready for commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2013.
When the Dunlop shod Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took the chequered flag at the 8 Hours of Doha on November 14, the result ensured not only race victory but also victory in the whole 2010 FIM World Endurance Championship. Half of the season’s top-ten ranked bikes rode on Dunlop, and the tyre maker points out that this championship victory marks the eighth occasion in which Dunlop has clinched the world title in the last ten years.
For the fourth time in its history, Reifen China welcomed floods of visitors through the doors of the Shanghai New International Expo Center where over 100 exhibitors from some of the country's leading suppliers and traders were waiting to share details of the latest products and business developments. Like the 2009 show, this year's Reifen China doesn't have the near complete set of the top 10 Chinese tyremakers that the organisers have been able to attract in the past. However, Messe Essen GmbH's cooperation with the China United Rubber Corporation (CURC) and conceptual sponsor cooperation with Bundesverband Reifenhandel & Vulkaniseur-Handwerk e.V. (BRV – the German tyre distributor and vulcanisation association has managed to attract some of the biggest players in the business and certainly offer the largest scale and most attractive exhibition stands at any tyre show Tyres & Accessories has visited in the country.
Blaming the continuing upwards momentum of natural rubber and other raw materials costs, in addition to increased transportation costs, Titan Tire has announced that its tyres and Titan manufactured, Goodyear branded farm tyres will increase by “up to 8 per cent”, though some products will supersede this rate of growth “due to repositioning of the product”.
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