It’s just over a month since Cooper Tire & Rubber announced its purchase of Serbian manufacturer Trayal’s passenger car tyre business. Since the acquisition agreement was signed on 8 December the Serbian firm has no doubt become more closely acquainted with its new owner; at the same time the union representing its employees has been getting to know the current thorn in Cooper’s side, the United Steelworkers union.
Only five months after reporting the opening of its 800th Vianor outlet, Nokian Tyres says it has reached the 900 mark. The company’s 900th tyre and car service centre has begun operations in Bucharest, Romania.
Cooper Tire’s keeping mum about the progress of negotiations linked to its Findlay factory, but the union representing workers offers comment on the ongoing saga almost daily. The United Steelworkers reported today that solidarity events in support of the locked out Findlay workers are being planned across the US, and it also shared that workers at Cooper’s recently-acquired ex-Trayal plant in Serbia have already pledged their support and demanded the company end the lockout.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has announced its entry into an agreement to acquire the assets of an existing tyre plant in Kruševac, Serbia. Although Cooper’s statement on the deal did not name the Serbian company, the tyre maker’s interest in investing into Kruševac-based firm Trayal has been known since mid-2011. The agreement to acquire Trayal’s passenger car tyre business was signed on 8 December by Hal Miller, president of Cooper's International Tire Segment, and Serbia’s minister of Economy, Nebojša Ćirić.
Ivo Somr has been appointed director of the Mitas agricultural tyre factory in Ruma, Serbia following the planned return to the Czech Republic of the previous facility head, Rudolf Mačák. “Ruma plans to expand production of radial agricultural tyres,” Somr said.
Various Balkan region news sources have reported Cooper Tire & Rubber’s intention to invest in Serbia’s Trayal. The US firm’s plans apparently involve investing 50 million euros in Trayal over the next two years and increasing production from one million to 3.4 million tyres during that time and then boosting it to seven million over the subsequent two years.
It’s now a decade since Michelin Romania SA was established. Reflecting on the last ten years, the tyre maker’s recently-appointed general manager for Romania and the Balkan area, Eric Faidy, says Michelin has to-date invested 265 million euros in Romania. The French manufacturer entered the country in 2001 with the purchase of the Victoria Floresti and Zalau (also known as Silvania) factories operated by the Tofan Group. Michelin erected a greenfield steel cord plant in 2003, and in January 2005 it became a regional centre for commercial activities in the Balkans markets, including in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. In total, Michelin has produced more than 450,000 tonnes of tyres and 150,000 tonnes of cord in Romania during the past decade.
CM Manzoni SpA, the Italian rubber compound supplier, is reportedly considering opening a plant in eastern Serbia from which it would supply raw material to Pirelli & C SpA’s tire factory in neighboring Romania. News sources reported the news citing Serbian publication Vecernje Novosti, which itself quoted municipal officials in Zajecar.
Mitas a.s. has reportedly signed a “Declaration of Understanding” to build a new tyre production plant in the Czech Zlín Region, an essential step for the realization of the project. Contracts are said to be being drawn up currently. Mitas, a division of Czech Rubber Group CGS Tyres, is reportedly planning a 1 billion Czech koruny (£34 million, 40.65 million euros, US$53.73 million) investment in the Holešov Industrial Zone in the Czech Republic.
According to a Holešov Industrial Zone statement, the company is planning to build the plant at the end of next year and it will be fully operating in 2014. The site is expected to employ 500-550 people. The new factory will reportedly require 6.5 hectares of land, with the option for another 6 hectares. Mitas plans to produce mainly tyres agricultural tyres in Holešov. It has found several suitable places for realization of its intention, and finally it has been decided for Holešov.
The 37th edition of the revered Pirelli Calendar was presented to the world at its London launch on November 19. Those fortunate enough to receive a first glimpse of the 2010 incarnation of ‘The Cal’ at the Old Billingsgate venue were treated to a visual banquet of 30 images produced by American photographer Terry Richardson, a man Pirelli describes as an “enfant terrible” known for his provocative and outrageous approach.
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When Gerhard Plattner climbed behind the wheel of his Audi A3 on June 8, it was not for trip to the shop or something equally mundane. The Austrian distance driver had a more ambitious journey in his sights – to drive a car on three different continents within three days, a tour that would take him through thirteen countries. Accompanying Plattner, co-driver Franz Doppler and their Audi was a set of Hankook’s Ventus tyres – OE on numerous A3 models.
Continental AG subsidiary ContiTech has taken over Serbian manufacturer of mining operation conveyor belts, Univerzal Kolubara. According to ContiTech, the group paid less than ten million euros for the company, which has 250 employees. Investment at the Univerzal Kolubara site is planned in order to take advantage of anticipated growth in the mining of brown coal in Serbia.
According to the Beta News Agency, production at one of the three tyre factories belonging to Serbian manufacturer Trayal Corporation will recommence during the week of February 23 to 27, following a three-month pause. The company’s Dedina passenger car tyre factory is the first to resume activity since work stopped at the Trayal plants in mid-November 2008. To begin with, the factory will produce 4,200 tyres per day, significantly lower than the target of 10,000 passenger car tyres per day (by the end of 2009) set when investment into capacity expansion was announced in February 2008.
Serbia’s Tanjug news agency reports that Michelin intends to open a logistics centre within the country. Michelin Group managing partner Michel Rollier met with Serbian deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic during the Davos economic forum, says Tanjug, and plans were made for to establish such a facility before the middle of 2010.
Also on the agenda was production capacity: “We discussed the possibility of increasing production from six million tyres a year, the current output of Tigar–Michelin Company and we will keep working on that,” added Djelic.
Following the announced acquisition of the Rumaguma tyre manufacturing facility in Serbia formerly owned by GPX International, the CGS Group has disclosed it intends in time to use the facility as a basis for the further development of the company’s European radial capacities. The Czech Republic based manufacturer will integrate the Rumaguma plant industrial and agricultural tyre plant into its tyre division operated by MITAS a.s. The acquisition is, says CGS, part of the group’s strategy of focusing upon the agricultural and industrial tyres business, and will further support its second position in the European agricultural tyres segment.
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