Falken to Phase-Out Ohtsu
Falken Tire Corp is to discontinue the marketing and distribution the Ohtsu medium truck tyre. The move will become effective from 1 January 2005.
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Falken Tire Corp is to discontinue the marketing and distribution the Ohtsu medium truck tyre. The move will become effective from 1 January 2005.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced that it has been chosen as the exclusive tyre supplier for the 2005 Ford Harley-Davidson F-Series Super Duty, a truck that becomes available in November. The four-wheel drive truck features 20 inch Goodyear Wrangler AT/S tyres, along with an optional 6.8-litre V-10 or 6-litre diesel V-8 engine.
“Supplying the tyres for one of the toughest, most popular trucks on the road is a job Goodyear is proud to claim,” said Mike Parnell, Goodyear’s vice president, original equipment. “This truck is an eye-catcher, and we want the tyres to play an important role in that appeal.” The truck will use Wrangler AT/S tyres in the LT275/65R20 size.
Dunlop’s new performance tyre, the Sport Maxx, has been put to the test through the ‘Performance Car of the Year’ programme. Hailed as “the toughest media evaluation programme of its kind,” the annual test, conducted by Car & Driving, the UKs motoring media agency, puts top performance vehicles and their tyres through a series of road and track tests all over Europe.
Volkswagen has selected Matador’s so-called “green tyre” for original equipment on its Polo model.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced that it will expand availability of its Assurance tyre. The company will add three more sizes of the product, which features TripleTred Technology.
Yokohama Rubber Co, Ltd has announced that its flagship sport tyre Advan Sport has been as the 20 inch option tyre for the Bentley Motors Continental GT. Bentley has adopted the 275/35ZR20 for the Mulliner Driving Specification Continental GT, on both front and rear axles.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced that Pierre E Cohade, formerly executive vice president of worldwide water and beverage company, Groupe Danone, will become president of Goodyear’s Asia-Pacific region.
The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) is to be tied up in yet another lawsuit, this time with Cooper Tire & Rubber. A grievance has been filed to delay the sale of the company’s Cooper-Standard Automotive division to the Cypress Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.
Legal action is being taken on behalf of the 1,500 USWA members that work in four of the division’s plants across America.
Yokohama Rubber has announced that it will create a hoses and coupling division as of the 1 October.
The company will merge the operation of Yokohama Hydex, a wholly owned subsidiary, so that the production and assembly of hoses are integrated under one chain of command. The move will be made in an attempt to improve the efficiency of the business.
The new division will head a hoses and coupling sales department, engineering department and quality assurance department. The Yokohama Hydex head office in Tokyo and Nagoya will be integrated with the MB Tokyo Office and MB Nagoya Office of Yokohama Rubber, respectively. And the branch office functions in Osaka and Hiroshima will be transferred to the new hoses and coupling sales department.
Hydex Tokyo and YH America, will now become 100 per cent subsidiaries of Yokohama Rubber. Yokohama Hydex employees will be transferred to Yokohama Rubber.
JP Morgan has downgraded Goodyear Tire & Rubber from “overweight” to “neutral.”
Analysts claim that the downgrade is based on “valuation” and the company’s “less bullish growth prospects in 2H.” So far this quarter the company’s share price has appreciated 18 per cent in absolute terms and this combined with slowing growth rates has brought down the company’s rating. JP Morgan also asserts that Goodyear is unlikely to witness significant gains from its recent price increases.
Yokohama Rubber is to launch its new ADVAN brand at the Paris Motor Show 2004 (Mondial de l’automobile 2004), which commences on the 25 September.
The company describes the new product as its “symbolic” brand, representing its “global concept.” Yokohama plans to aggressively confront its new business strategy through the new brand, which includes developing flagship tyre products, participating further in motorsports, and co-developing activities with world leading carmakers and tuners. ADVAN is said to represent the company’s spirit of pursuing high performance and high quality products.
The new products will be introduced in markets around the world and sale of the tyres is scheduled to begin in 2005.
First introduced in 1978, ADVAN has been used for motorsports activities and high performance tyres in Japan. Its presentation at the Paris Motor Show will be the first fully-fledged introduction in the European market. Yokohama will exhibit ADVAN Sport and ADVAN S.T, its SUV tyre. The company’s run flat tyre systems, including the Z.P.S. and the Support Ring System will also be displayed at the exhibition.
Chinese company Qingdao Doublestar has announced that it is forming a joint venture with Continental in China.
In a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange the Chinese company is said to have reported that Conti is expected to start negotiations on financial terms and other venture details.
Once again the market’s focus is on China, where passenger car sales surged 76 per cent last year to 1.97 million units. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Michelin and Yokohama all have existing operations within the expanding market.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has announced that it will sell its automotive business, Cooper-Standard Automotive, to an entity formed by The Cypress Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners for approximately $1.165 billion in cash. The transaction, which is subject to certain post-closing adjustments, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2004.
Cooper-Standard Automotive, which had revenue of approximately $1.6 billion in 2003, is a manufacturer of fluid handling systems, body sealing systems, and active and passive vibration control systems, primarily for automotive original equipment manufacturers.
Thomas Dattilo, chairman, president, and CEO of Cooper Tire & Rubber said: “We are pleased with the transaction terms reached with Cypress and Goldman. We look forward to pursuing growth opportunities in our tyre business. We believe that after the transaction is completed Cooper-Standard Automotive will be well-positioned for continued strong growth under its new ownership.” Proceeds from the sale are expected to be used for debt reduction, further investment in operations and in repurchasing shares.
Nokian is set to introduce a W speed rated summer car tyre, which it claims is “the fastest clean summer tyre in the world.”
The Nokian Z ultra high performance tyre will initially be launched in the Nordic countries, Central Europe and Russia in the spring of 2005. The company describes the tyre’s characteristics as combining “good wet grip, precise controllability and clean rubber compounds,” and says that it is manufactured without harmful high-aromatic oils.
Mr Teppo Huovila, product development manager, Nokian Tyres explains that the design of the new tyre is focused on two core points: “Safety under extreme conditions and environmental friendliness.” Which he believes calls for the company’s “special technical skills and solid experience.”
The US government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has officially proposed that all new vehicles carry a TPMS. The announcement comes after the NHTSA sent the draft rule to the Office of Management and Budget on 1 July.
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