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.
Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department manager Shinji Aoki has revealed that MotoGP riders’ test session at Brno suggests the tyre supplier’s experimental new hard compound tyre improves on the warm-up performance of the current hard tyre. The results were far from conclusive though, with few riders choosing to test the rubber in cool conditions.
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The US edition of CIO magazine, a publication aimed at senior IT executives, has named Goodyear Tire & Rubber one of its 2012 CIO 100 winners. Upon receiving the accolade, Goodyear vice-president and chief information officer Jim McKinnon said “winning the CIO 100 award is tremendous recognition for the success of our multi-year project, which has aligned all of the company’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa on a common business platform.”
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa won an exciting last lap battle with Factory Yamaha Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo to win MotoGP’s Czech Grand Prix for his second successive victory. Lorenzo led Pedrosa for the first half of the race, with the two riders setting new circuit lap record on six consecutive laps; Lorenzo’s eighth lap time of 1:56:274 being the quickest. After Pedrosa made his way past Lorenzo on lap eleven the two riders held position until the last lap where Lorenzo squeezed past Pedrosa, leading to a close final bend where the Repsol Honda rider hit back, getting the better drive to the line to win the race by 0.178 seconds. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow claimed his first ever MotoGP podium by taking third place, while Power Electronics Aspar’s Randy de Puniet made the most of his good qualifying performance to cross the finish line in eighth position to be the highest placed CRT rider. Bridgestone stayed in the Czech Republic after the race weekend, using Brno as the venue for its group test, where the company was due to unveil a new compound.
During 2011, some 4.8 million tonnes of tyres were manufactured in Europe, a figure representing 24 per cent of the global total. Overall tyre production levels within the region were 6.6 per cent higher than in 2010. European replacement market sales totaled 301.7 million units during the year, an increase of 4.41 per cent over 2010 levels; replacement passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyre sales came to 289 million units, up 4.21 per cent, and replacement commercial vehicle tyre sales amounted to 12.6 million units, a 9.1 per cent year-on-year increase.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s directors have declared a quarterly dividend of 73.44 cents per share of mandatory convertible preferred stock. The dividend is payable 1 October 2012 to shareholders of record on 14 September 2012. The payout represents an annual rate of $2.9375 per share.
On 23 August Polish chemical manufacturer Synthos SA informed the Warsaw Stock Exchange it has signed a supply deal with Goodyear Tire & Rubber. The agreement is valid until 31 December 2012 and covers the supply of solution styrene butadiene rubber and emulsion styrene butadiene rubber. The contract is valued at approximately PLN 3.74 billion (£709 million); the price to be paid is based upon a formula that takes into account the market price of raw materials.
In August, some 14 years after its first plant obtained ISO 14001 certification, Yokohama achieved company-wide integrated certification under ISO 14001. The Environmental Management Systems (EMS) certification covers Yokohama Rubber’s nine locations within Japan: the company’s head office and eight domestic production sites (Hiratsuka, Mie, Mishima, Shinshiro, Onomichi, Ibaraki, Nagano and Hiratsuka-East).
Almost a year ago, MRF chairman K M Mammen told journalists the tyre maker was considering acquiring or leasing a 100,000 hectare rubber plantation in Southeast Asia. Since then, little has been heard on the subject. In recent days, however, Indian newspapers the Hindu Business Line and Business Standard have both quoted MRF executive vice-president of marketing, Koshy Varghese, as saying the company is currently investigating its options.
Tyrexpo Asia 2013 has smashed through the 150-exhibitor milestone; with six months still to go before opening day, the biennial event is now 90 per cent full, an unprecedented position in the show’s 16-year history. Event organiser ECI International also reports the presence of “heavyweight” domestic Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese exhibitors, plus interest from a large number of Indian, European and US suppliers.
Russia’s finally gained admission to the World Trade Organisation, making this massive market even more attractive to international companies. Tyre makers have shown interest in Russia for some time, and Yokohama Rubber claims it holds the top share there amongst the foreign-owned tyre manufacturers. In December 2011 it became the first Japanese tyre manufacturer to open a plant in Russia and the company reports its sales network is growing. To support its activities, the tyre maker has announced its participation in the Moscow International Automobile Salon 2012, which runs from 29 August to 9 September.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Europe Ltd says “difficult market conditions in Europe” are behind the recently-announced redundancies at its Melksham site. The tyre maker has confirmed some 50 redundancies in the plant’s manufacturing operations area.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has introduced new policy guidelines covering the country’s retreading industry and waste tyre utilisation. These include directives regarding where a retreading facility may and may not be set up – no new retreading plants are to be established in environmentally sensitive areas – and also calls for greater consistency in the production process and with production equipment plus the implementation of product quality control systems and testing equipment in line with national and industry standards.
The history of the EU tyre label is closely connected with the passenger car tyre segment. The criteria that led to standardised test procedures for fuel efficiency/rolling resistance, wet grip and external rolling noise primarily focused on the passenger car segment, and summer passenger car tyres in particular. Despite this, the label doesn’t just apply to C1, or passenger car tyres that are produced from 1 July 2012 (DOT 2712), but also to light commercial vehicle tyres (C2) and truck tyres (C3). Retreaded tyres, which account for a large percentage of Europe’s truck tyre market, are one of a number of exemptions to the labelling legislation.
A Hankook-commissioned fuel consumption test comparing the Korean tyre maker’s e-cube truck range with the Michelin X Energy and its own standard truck tyre range has delivered favourable results for the e-cube. The test, carried out by DEKRA’s Automobil Test Center in Klettwitz, Germany, pitted identical Scania G420 4×2’ tractor units and Schmitz Cargobull trailers against each other; these were respectively fitted with Hankook e-cube AL10, Michelin XZA 2 and Hankook AL02 on the steering axle, e-cube DL10, XDA 2+ and DL02 on the drive axle – all size 315/80 R 22 – and e-cube TL10, XTA 2+ and TH02 in size 385/65 R 22.5 on the trailer.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries reports that its 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Sumitomo Rubber (Thailand), held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new agricultural tyre factory in Thailand on 2 August. The plant, which is currently under construction in the Amata City Industrial Estate, Rayong Province, will be Sumitomo’s first agricultural tyre factory outside of Japan. It is being set up with a total investment of some 10 billion yen (£80 million) and is scheduled to enter production in May 2014. The 130,000 square metre facility should produce around 50,000 tyres a month by the end of 2017.
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