Bienes Turgon, S.A., a Mexican holding company with interests in the automotive industry through its subsidiary Katcon, S.A., has announced the acquisition of Delphi Corporation’s global exhaust system business in its entirety. The transaction, covered by a Master Sale and Purchase Agreement and financed with an equity increase and existing cash reserves, is expected to be closed during the first half of 2009.
According to a company official, sales at Dunlop Zimbabwe Limited have significantly improved since the company received a license entitling it to sell its products in foreign currency. The license was granted to Dunlop Zimbabwe by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in late November 2008.
Without releasing specific figures, company managing director Kennedy Mandevani said that sales have been steadily increasing. “The FOLIWARS (Foreign Exchange Licensed Warehouses and Retail Shops) sales are gradually picking up and will make a positive difference to our sales mix,” he said. “Dunlop is intensifying its marketing campaign so that more of our customers are made aware of this facility.”
Stamford Tyres of Singapore has told Asian news sources that it expects to record a loss in its second quarter ending 31 October, 2008. The company said that the losses were a result of currencies in Australia, South Africa, Indonesia and India weakening against the American dollar in October. It says that the losses are not related to speculative hedging instruments. The firm still expects to post a profit for the first half of its financial year.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has granted Dunlop Zimbabwe the licence required for companies in the country to sell products using foreign currencies, according to the Chronicle newspaper.
The paper quotes the firm’s Southern regional manager Dumisani Ndlovu, who stated, “the inspection was done by the RBZ on 25 November to check whether the ultra violet money detection machine was in place, the invoicing, security, computer network and warehousing. The team was satisfied and Dunlop was given permission to sell in forex.” He concluded that the licence would allow the manufacturer to import more raw materials, which would make an increase in production capacity possible, “thereby improving the company’s viability and safeguarding the company’s employment base. In addition, the more we sell in forex, the more forex that is made available to the RBZ to finance crucial national programmes in the country,” he stated.
The Roesler Group has announced that it is to support its core retreading business with a product branded “Roesler 360”. The new offering comprises what the company terms a “fully integrated ‘Total Tyre Management System’” for buyers, maintenance workshops, operators and users of EM and OTR tyres. Roesler says that it will offer customers “a complete tyre quality management, performance enhancing and tracking facility that ranges from first fitment, right through to the end of tyre life disposal and recycling.”
Roesler 360 incorporates the combined expertise, technical innovation, manufacturing and site servicing capabilities of the Roesler Group, its comprehensive range of tyre types and sizes and its diversity of applications. It will provide a highly flexible, customer focused and traceable system, which manages, analyses and reports a tyre’s total life cycle. It also features data on the tyre’s selection, fitment, use, performance, servicing, retreading and ultimate disposal, allowing the tyre to be fully optimised in terms of continuously improving its running costs, hours, safety, reliability and carbon footprint.
Dunlop commissioned a specially designed helmet for Marco Simoncelli to celebrate the company’s 200th consecutive victory in MotoGP 250cc. It was Simoncelli whose victory marked the milestone, to add to his 2008 series victory. The presentation was made by Raoul Smits, European sales and marketing manager, Dunlop Motorcycle Tires, at a press party hosted by Dunlop at the final MotoGP of the season in Valencia on 26 October. While Dunlop is currently the sole tyre supplier to the 250cc series, company representatives say they would welcome competition, though breaking the manufacturer’s winning streak would take some doing.
“We celebrate not only 200 consecutive victories, but also our 16th consecutive World Championship title in 250cc GP,” he said, in congratulating Marco and the Metis Gilera team. “Racing is very important to us, and the technology transfer between race and road helps us to develop road tires with outstanding characteristics with regards both to safety and performance.”
Upon reporting Apollo Tyres’ second quarter 2008 results, a quarter in which consolidated net profit dropped 74 per cent on the previous year, company chairman Onkar S Kanwar stated that, despite difficult times, Apollo retains a positive outlook for the future. “It has been a testing quarter for the company and us as an industry, but I do believe that the worst might be behind us and it’s time to plan for the future,” he said. “The positive that I take from here is a consistent growth in sales, especially in South Africa, where we are able to now reap the benefits of our manufacturing and marketing excellence with a near 30 per cent sales growth this quarter.”
Bridgestone Corporation announced on October 14 that its board of directors has approved the following proposals of the changes in corporate officers.
Changing positions and responsibilities of Corporate Officers – effective October 16, 2008
– Yasumi Kawasaki.
New position and responsibilities: Vice president and senior officer responsible for Quality Management, Quality
Current position and responsibilities: Vice president and senior officer responsible for Quality Management
Despite the possibility of a price increase between October and December this year (see ‘Costs, Prices Continue to Rise for Apollo’ – www.tyrepress.com), Apollo Tyres’ chairman, Onkar Kanwar has stated that Apollo will continue to see “15-20 per cent” annual sales growth, while “Volume growth will continue at the same level” over the next six months.
Kanwar also told news sources that the company’s planned 320 million US dollar investment in production capacity expansion in India and South Africa is on schedule and has not been changed in light of the worldwide financial climate. “I am very optimistic,” he told journalists. “There might be some slight slowdown temporarily, but starting first quarter (April-June 2009) it should start moving up.”
The government of Mozambique is seeking a way to reactivate the tyre plant near Maputo. The facility is currently paralysed and the state is eager to find new funding to restore the site to its former glories as one of the nation’s showpiece sites for foreign investors. The factory opened in 1979 as the collaborative effort of the ruling parties of Mozambique and General Tire of the United States. However, since the Americans left in 2003, the plant has stood still for five years, with proposals falling flat and potential investment unforthcoming.
Sergio Macamo, the current National Director of Industry told local news sources that the government “received several proposals, but when the time came to make the investment, they did not advance. Now we’ve given a chance to a company that says it wants to revive Mabor. But if the negotiations with this company fail, then we shall launch an international tender by the end of this year.” With the massive international market for tyres very much established, Macamo hopes that the factory can claim its slice of the pie once again soon.
As an official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Continental AG has secured significant television coverage for itself during the 260 qualification group matches to be played in Europe. Continental will appear on four of the advertising hoardings in the stadiums used for more than 170 matches, and the television images broadcasted around the world will extend Conti’s presence to millions of TV screens.
Apollo is to follow car manufacturers BMW and Fiat by opening its own signature stores to display and sell its products within India. The decision can be seen equally as a commercial and a prestige move. While the stores – which will be split between Apollo Radial World (ARW) stores for passenger cars and Apollo Trust (AT) for commercial customers – will open across the country, the ability to promote solely Apollo products through eleven flagship ARWs – the first of which has opened in Patiala – is undoubtedly appealing. This fiscal year will see also see 100 AT stores open nationwide, should the company’s plans be fulfilled.
A company source indicates the new Apollo Tyres greenfield radial facility in preparation on the outskirts of Chennai, India, will enter operation late next year. The Hindu Business Line newspaper was informed that the plant’s first construction phase will commence by the end of October at a cost of 10 billion rupees (£125.7 million). Overall, development of the 135 acre site, which will deliver a daily capacity of 200 tonnes, will cost 22 billion rupees (£276.5 million).
The source further commented that Apollo has become a “high-performance company” and the leading Indian tyre manufacturer with revenues of over US$1.2 billion. “It is built around the core principles of creating stakeholder value through reliability in its products and dependability in its relationships,” he said. The company has a network of over 4,000 dealerships in India, of which over 2,500 are exclusive outlets. In South Africa, it has over 900 dealerships, of which 190 are Dunlop Zones, the source added.
In July 2005 a case of industrial espionage involving Zeus GmbH, a subsidiary of Germany’s Rösler group, was reported in South Africa. At the time the company was testing a newly developed puncture protection substance, which today is marketed worldwide as Triofill.
Two men illegally entered the Zeus factory building, took photographs of the new Trio fill pump and stole samples of the Triofill. Zeus Gmbh has finally received a 14-page judgment from the South African court regarding the case, and Tyres & Accessories has seen a copy of this judgment. The court has penalised each of the two men with fines of 20,000 rand (£1,400).
Africa is a market that presents tyre manufacturers with both problems and opportunities. Theoretically, the potential may be there for a thriving industry and market, yet unreliable infrastructure, taxation issues and political instability are all features of the African tyre industry landscape that make operations complicated. However, despite such hurdles, the situation in some areas is improving.
In mid-July Dunlop Nigeria announced the planned closure of its factory, claiming tariff reductions on imported goods as a deciding factor. In early 2007 the Nigerian government reduced the tariff on imported truck and bus tyres from 40 per cent to 10 per cent, undermining, in Dunlop’s view, the investments it had made in expanding its radial production programme.
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