Tyres can’t function without this critical raw material. Whether its natural or synthetic rubber you are interested in, articles bearing this tag feature this indispensable polymer.
When asked to sum up his company’s year “business is going well,” is the response given by Deldo sales manager, Stani Delcroix. By this he means that the company has once again broken its own sales records with turnover growing 10 per cent to 235 million euros. Delcroix said he believed this was impossible to beat, that was until the company achieved a further 8 per cent growth (year-on-year) in the first quarter of 2006.
This year there was one single goal that Sumitomo Rubber Industries or rather Falken wanted to achieve at the Reifen show in Essen: promoting the new flagship tyre – Falken FK-452. In particular there is now a new unique Falken size which was developed together with O·Z as a wheel manufacturer and aimed at SUV drivers, explains Isamu Ishida.
Following earlier reports that Cooper Tire & Rubber will idle its Texarkana, Arkansas production facility, the company now says it has decided to suspend production at all of its US plants for two weeks. Cooper Tire & Rubber Europe’s production facility at Melksham, UK, is not expected to have any shutdowns. However, sources within the company report that production here has also been cut back slightly. As the problem is due to oversupply, deliveries are not expected to be adversely affected. Cooper Tire & Rubber Europe sources all of its 4×4 lines from the US production plants.
Since Elgitread (India) Ltd., the Indian supplier of retreading material, machinery, accessories and services, gained a new exclusive importer for the important German market (Hämmerling group), business in Europe is said to be getting better and better. Until four or five years ago Elgitread focussed most of its capacity on the development of the North and South American markets, explains K. Gopinath in an interview with Tyres & Accessories. Since then, Europe has reached a new position on top of the Elgitread agenda, the general manager responsible for international marketing continues.
(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.’s manufacturing facility in Texarkana, Arkansas, will shut down production for two weeks, according to a report in the Texarkana Gazette.
Bridgestone Corporation has revised its full-year financial projections, cutting net income predictions 35 per cent to 65 billion yen (£306 million).
Standard & Poor’s Equity Research analyst Efraim Levy has reduced his earnings estimates for Goodyear Tire & Rubber, saying that raw material costs will have a greater impact on the company than was originally thought. He cut the second-quarter and full-year 2006 earnings estimates on Goodyear to 36 cents and $1.29 per share, respectively, from 43 cents and $1.51. Levy said he expects the company to be cash-flow negative in 2006 and he lowered the target price on Goodyear shares to $14 from $17.
The Hercules Tire & Rubber Company (Hercules), the marketer and distributor of private label and branded tyres, announced that it is acquiring Tire Distributor Inc., USA (TDI), a tyre wholesaler headquartered near Miami, Florida. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “We are very pleased to bring TDI and its management team and employees into the Hercules family,” said Larry Seawell, president and chief executive officer of Hercules. Seawell added, “We had targeted the Southeast region for expansion given the opportunities for growth in that market, and it was important for us to find a strong operating platform in Florida that would allow us to expand our sales and distribution capabilities throughout the Southeast and into Latin America.”
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announced that it is withdrawing from certain segments of the private label tyre business in North America. Approximately 10 private label brands currently manufactured by Goodyear and sold by wholesale customers to tyre retailers will be affected by the decision. In 2005, this segment represented approximately $300 million in sales and about 8 million units manufactured in five North American plants, or approximately one-third of the company’s overall private label business.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s virtual design technology, which has facilitated the success of several award-winning new tyres, has earned a 2006 CIO 100 award. The annual award program sponsored by CIO magazine recognises organisations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology.
(India/Rubber Asia) Goodyear India is quietly getting into the news again. After years of lack-lustre performance, the company is making rapid strides in select segments and is charting out aggressive growth strategies. Antonio M.Capellini, chairman and managing director of Goodyear India, has reason to be happy. Despite severe competition from multinational and local brands, the company has carved out a niche market for itself. In the OTR tyre segment it’s the market leader in the country. With an 18 per cent market share in the passenger car radial segment, it is the only tyre company in the country approved by all car manufacturers for OEM supplies.
(Akron/Tire Review) The Associated Press has reported that the US Labor Department has filed a hiring discrimination suit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The suit alleges the tyremaker discriminated against female applicants for jobs at its Danville, Virginia, tyre plant in the 1990s.
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd has reported record annual net sales of 300.2 billion yen (£1.412 billion, 2.75 billion euros), an 11.2 per cent increase on 2005. Operating income for the 2005 financial year also grew, totalling 13.094 billion yen (£61.627 million, 90.5 million euros) up 8.5 per cent year-on-year. However this total was short of the company’s target of 13.6 billion yen. During the period, Toyo’s net income fell 22.1 per cent to 5.378 billion (£25.313 million, 37.2 million euros). Toyo’s results presentation explain that the fall in its various income totals was largely impacted by the rise in raw material costs that is effecting all manufacturers.
The last message I would ever hear from Edouard Michelin was as follows: “For Michelin it would have been totally unthinkable to leave people in the lurch who have shown their loyalty to our group over so many years.” From an economic point of view, Michelin should have sold its rubber plantation after it became obvious that the plantation in the North of Brazil, close to Salvador/Bahia, could not be managed successfully and would continue to lose money. But, instead of selling the plantation and abandoning the people, leaving them without hope, Michelin looked for other and better alternatives and created the Ouro Verde project.
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A recent Farmer’s Weekly article entitled “One man’s waste…Profit from tyres” encourages farmers to shop around for the best deal when it comes to disposing of tyres. The article pointed to new waste regulations that came into force on 15 May, explaining that Farmers can store waste tyres that are “already on-farm” under an exemption licence from the Environment Agency that must be applied for by 15 May 2007.
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