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Michelin expect strong growth in China

According to the Shanghai Daily, Michelin will continue to expand its Chinese venture by investing several hundred millions of US dollars in automobile tyre production plants. Expansion efforts are expected to continue for five years, at which annual production capacity will top several million units of tires, said Eric Jugier, chairman of Michelin (China) Investment Co Ltd. In 2001, Michelin established a joint venture with Shanghai Tire & Rubber with an investment of 200 million US dollars in exchange for a 70 per cent stake. Michelin also plans to add up to 200 retail shops in China this year. Jugier said he expected Michelin’s business to grow much faster than that of the industry as a whole. The Chinese tyre sector is expected to grow by about 30 per cent annually for the next five years. In 2003 there was a 36.7 per cent increase in vehicle manufacture and China is expected to produce 125 million tyres in 2004, one-third of which will be exported.

16th March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Completes Private Secured Notes Offering

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced that it has completed a private offering of 650 million dollars of senior secured notes. The proceeds of the notes were used to repay the remaining amount outstanding under the company’s U.S. term loan facility, to reduce its 750 million dollars U.S. revolving credit facility to 680 million dollars and for general corporate purposes. “This financing, along with our recently completed 650 million dollar term loan, have enabled us to meet our goal of refinancing the U.S. Term Loan before April of this year and avoids the milestone fee that would have been payable under our restructured credit facilities put in place last April,” said Robert W. Tieken, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

16th March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Pilot Travel Centers go Michelin and Goodyear

Michelin Americas Truck Tires and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have announced agreements with Pilot Travel Centers LLC, the largest truck stop network in North America, to begin supply Michelin, BFGoodrich and Goodyear truck tyres at its travel centres. Pilot Travel Centers is a leading interstate retailer, operating 264 travel centres coast-to-coast. The company operates its travel centres in 38 states. Goodyear will supply a variety of truck tyres for Pilot’s store network, including the G395 LHS steer tyre. The new Pilot Truck Care Centers will also feature a full line of Michelin and BFGoodrich tyres including the Michelin X One wide single tyre line.

12th March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper Tire Motorsports brings Mickey Thompson Tyres to the UK

In the sport of drag racing Mickey Thompson Drag Tyres are a force to be reckoned with in the United States. Now, through Cooper Tire Motorsports, Mickey Thompson drag tyres will be available from Avon Tyres Racing and three specialist distributors in the UK.

5th March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear and USWA settle differences

Goodyear Tire and Rubber and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) have settled a dispute over where its new line of tires is manufactured. The union last week accused Goodyear of violating its labour contract by making the Assurance tires at a non-union plant. Goodyear denied the claim, but the dispute put a damper on the Assurance launch and it put more strain on an already tense relationship between the union and the Akron-based company. A union spokesman said they were happy with Goodyear’s promise that one million tires would be manufactured at union plants.

4th March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Radials Beat Competitor by 56% in USAF F-16 Test

In a competition to supply tyres for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the United States Air Force notified The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company that its radial aviation tyres won a USAF performance shootout with a major competitor. Goodyear Flight Radials beat a Michelin radial tyre design by 56 per cent on the F-16 block 40 main landing gear, according to results of the USAF competitive evaluation. Goodyear officials said the win is significant since the Air Force uses the test results in its annual procurement awards.

1st March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

More Outsourcing For Cooper

Back in October, Cooper Tire & Rubber announced that Chinese manufacturer Hangzhou Zhongce would produce 300,000 radial medium truck tyres for the US company. Now Cooper has revealed that Hangzhou Zhongce is also to make one million passenger radials for the US market; these will be in six sizes under the brand names Cooper, Mastercraft, Dean and Starfire. Dick Stephens, president of Cooper’s Tire Group, said that the outsourcing will help Cooper meet growing demand, especially for the Zeon high performance lines. “By outsourcing some of our broadline products, we can devote more production capacity to the more exotic performance tyres,” commented Stephens, adding: “We have increased capacity at all of our US plants and these tyres from Hangzhou will help fill the gap between our capacity and projected demand.” The tyres will be manufactured to Cooper’s specifications and engineers are currently in China conducting audits to ensure the highest quality standards.

25th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Corporation Reports Sales and Earnings for Fiscal 2003

The group recorded a 96 per cent increase in net income in 2003, to ¥88.7 billion (0.8 billion US dollars), on a 2 per cent increase in net sales, to 21.5 billion US dollars. Operating income was basically unchanged, at 1.7 billion US dollars, and ordinary income rose 13 per cent 1.6 billion US dollars. Net return on shareholders’ equity was 10.5 per cent, compared with 5.6 per cent in the previous year. Contrasting geographical trends characterized the operating environment. In Japan, economic recovery was weak. In the latter half of the year the weakening of the dollar affected Japanese exports adversely. Escalating costs for natural rubber and other raw materials undercut profitability in all principal markets throughout the year. Sales of tyres increased 2 per cent to 17.2 billion US dollars. However, operating income in the tyre segment declined 4 per cent to 1.4 billion US dollars. Sales in Europe rose 20 per cent to 2.7 billion US dollars, and operating income climbed 87 per cent to 0.14 billion US dollars, reflecting success in focusing sales on high-value products and the results of a financial restructuring in the previous year.

23rd February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo Announces Tire Production in the United States

Toyo Tire & Rubber Co Ltd has announced its decision to build a new manufacturing plant in the United States for the production of passenger car and light truck tyres.

20th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone 2003 Profit Up

Bridgestone Corp. has declared its 2003 full-year profit rose 95.5 per cent but forecast a decline in 2004 as the strong yen, higher rubber costs and a fire-induced output cut threaten its bottom line. Group net profit for the year ended December 31 was 88.72 billion yen (829.1 million US dollars), compared with 45.38 billion yen the year before. Recurring profit increased 13.1 percent to 167.30 billion yen. The results were better than Bridgestone’s forecasts, which were revised down in September to account for the fallout from the fire at one of its major domestic plants. For this year, Bridgestone has forecast a recurring profit of 130 billion yen and net profit of 75 billion yen.

20th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper ups production at Findlay

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company plans to add capacity at its Findlay (Ohio) plant with an equipment investment of 1.8 million US dollars. The capacity will increase by 500,000 tyres annually and add at least 30 additional jobs in the Findlay production facility. Bill Woeste, vice president manufacturing, said, “We expect this equipment to be in place and at full production levels by late summer,” he concluded. In January, Cooper announced investments in its other three U.S. tyre plants; with Findlay added, the total investment is nearly 34 million US dollars and an added capacity of almost 3 million units annually.

20th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Union: Claims contract violation

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s largest union has said the company’s plans to make new passenger tyres at a non-union plant may violate the terms of their contract. The United Steelworkers of America said it wants more information from Goodyear about the Assurance tyres being made in Lawton, Oklahoma. USWA claims that the contract, which froze wages in exchange for job security measures, requires that new products developed for sale in North America be made at unionised plants. The dispute could strain Goodyear’s relationship with the USWA, which represents 19,000 workers at 13 U.S. plants.

20th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Daekyung signs up Cooper Tire & Rubber

Daekyung Chemical Corp. has agreed to a contract to Cooper Tire and Rubber Co.’s automotive parts group. Cooper-Standard Automotive will help design and support engineering development for engine mounting systems for future Kia and and Hyundai vehicles.

19th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Firestone employees threaten strike

Wages, pension fund contributions and affordable health care coverage headed the list of issues brought to the bargaining table by union officials representating the 157 employees at Orange County’s Firestone Polymers synthetic rubber plant. PACE Local 4-836 union representatives and plant officials entered into contract negotiations, but not before employees agreed they would go on strike if a new contract were not forged by the March 7 deadline, the date the employee’s existing three-year contract expires. Dan MacDonald, a spokesperson with Firestone’s parent company, Nashville-based Bridgestone America, said he believed contract talks would be successful, but criticised union representatives for taking negotiations away from the bargaining table. “I want to emphasize that we believe that is very important to keep the negotiations at the bargaining table and to not try to work out a deal through the media,” MacDonald said, adding that it is important to forge a contract that allows the company to be successful.”

13th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper will focus on HP, UHP this year

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. plans to substantially boost its high performance and ultra-high performance tyre market share in 2004, Cooper Chairman, CEO and President Tom Dattilo told analysts. The 2003 figure of 2 per cent market share is a half per cent ahead of 2002 and the company is said to be selling out of its Zeon UHP product. Meeting demand will depend upon increased reliance on Asian partners, but a 32 million dollar investment in the three USA plants will also contribute to meeting demand. Sales for the last quarter were a record 967 million dollars and tyre Group sales were up 6 per cent on the previous year.

13th February 2004/by Tyrepress Editors