Nokian premieres ‘AA’ rated summer range
Nokian Tyres claims membership in the exclusive ‘AA’ label club with the introduction of its new eLine summer tyre range. Sales of the eLine, a product suitable for smaller cars, will begin in spring 2013.
Nokian Tyres claims membership in the exclusive ‘AA’ label club with the introduction of its new eLine summer tyre range. Sales of the eLine, a product suitable for smaller cars, will begin in spring 2013.
The Apollo tyre brand is being repositioned in order to, manufacturer Apollo Tyres shares, move the humble tyre from being a commodity and “grudge purchase” to a lifestyle product. In a handbook outlining its rebranding strategy, Apollo Tyres says its core brand idea centres on two things, namely “go the distance” and “safety.”
On 14 September, Titan International announced the proposed issue of up to 6,240,833 new Titan International common shares to Titan Europe shareholders in connection with Titan International’s offer for Titan Europe plc. Under Titan International’s offer, Titan Europe shareholders will receive one new share of Titan International common stock for every 11 Titan Europe shares held. Based on the closing exchange rate of £1=$1.6016 and the closing stock price of Titan International common stock of $20.03 on September 13, 2012, this offer values each Titan Europe share at approximately 113.36 pence and Titan Europe’s fully diluted share capital at approximately £104.8 million. The Titan International offer represents a premium of approximately 15.1 per cent to the closing price of 111.25 pence per Titan Europe share on September 13, 2012.
Following the news that Continental AG shares will once again be traded on the German DAX list, financial analysts have been assessing the impact that this likely to make on the company’s share price. For its part Morgan Stanley estimated that the impact will actually be “relatively small from a trading perspective – circa 1-2 days of trading volume and circa 1-2 per cent of the current available freefloat.”
Almost four years after being shown the door at the DAX 30, Germany’s Continental AG is set to re-enter the exclusive group of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Stock exchange operator Deutsche Börse announced Conti’s return to the DAX 30 on the evening of 5 September.
The Forbes ‘Asia’s Fab 50’ ranks the “best of Asia Pacific’s biggest listed companies,” and this year’s list has been described by the business magazine as a “roll call of outfits that have managed to thrive amid decelerating growth in Asia and all but nonexistent growth in their US and European markets.” For 2012, Forbes has added Cheng Shin Rubber Ind., manufacturer of the Maxxis tyre brand, to the list. At present Maxxis is the only tyre brand represented in the Fab 50 table.
At present Yokohama Rubber is in the process of winding up the joint venture it operated in Vietnam for the last 15 years and intends to integrate this into its local subsidiary. The company announced on 4 September that the three joint investors in Yokohama Tire Vietnam Company (YTVC) – Yokohama Rubber, Southern Rubber Industry Company (Casumina), and Mitsubishi Corporation – began preparing to end the joint venture company in August as part of what Yokohama Rubber calls the “enhancement” of its tyre manufacturing and marketing operation in Vietnam.
Businesses and company car drivers wishing to become better informed about fleet tyre safety can now do so at a new dedicated section on TyreSafe’s www.tyresafe.org website.
Continental boasts that its latest North American replacement market tyre, the PureContact, brings together “best-in-class wet braking, fuel efficiency and ride comfort.” The all-season tyre is available to North American consumers in a number of 15 to 18-inch rim diameters, a UTQG rating of 700 AA, and H and V speed ratings.
Life-sized puppets play a key role in a new road safety promotion jointly staged by Michelin and vehicle leasing/fleet managing company Arval. As part of its corporate social responsibilities, Arval is working with the tyre maker to get the road safety message across to teenagers near its Swindon head office. The puppet show will be presented to Swindon College and Royal Wootton Bassett Sixth Form in September.
Continental Tire the Americas announced a major expansion of its US headquarters in Ft. Mill, South Carolina. US industry publication Tire Review shares that the three year old headquarters building will be extended by 16,000 square feet, creating a total area of 91,000 square feet. Along with a larger floorspace, the expansion will bring 80 new jobs to the headquarters over the coming four years.
In its 2011 Annual Report, Goodyear India Limited shares that it intends to phase out production of cross-ply medium commercial truck tyres and transfer the freed-up capacity to the manufacture of agricultural tyres. “In the farm segment, growing levels of farm mechanisation and subsequent growth in all agriculture related industries should provide your company with attractive growth prospects,” stated the Annual Report, adding that the majority of agricultural products currently sold by Goodyear Indian are cross-ply construction.
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).
On 26 September, the US tariff on Chinese-manufactured consumer tyres is scheduled to end. On that day it’ll be exactly three years since a 35 per cent duty was slapped upon all such tyres imported from China; this was reduced to 30 per cent in 2010 and for the past 12 months US consumers have paid a 25 per cent duty on Chinese passenger car and light truck tyres. The tariff received a mixed welcome – the Tire Industry Association referred to it in 2009 as “a politically motivated decision that will end up costing more jobs than it saves” while the United Steelworkers union praised Barack Obama as being “a President with the guts to enforce trade laws.” Either way, in little over a month the tyre tariff will be history.
A statement on the International Tripartite Rubber Council’s website shows that the organisation, set up in 2001 to represent the interests of the world’s three largest natural rubber producing countries – Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia – doesn’t intend to sit back and accept the lower prices the commodity has received of late.
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