Truck Tyres
Michelin reports that East Riding Sacks has clocked up over 700,000km on a set of Michelin XDE2 drive axle tyres – the equivalent of over 535 journeys from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The tyres were fitted as original equipment to a Volvo FM9-300 in May 2003 and regrooved for the first time in May last year. When they were removed in April 2010 – to be replaced with a set of Michelin Remix tyres – they had covered 752,827 km.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd has announced plans to build a new factory in China. Construction is set to begin in September 2010, with a total investment of US$297 million (267 billion yen) earmarked for the project. Production is planned to begin in July 2012 with output rising to 15,000 tyres a day (after 139 billion yen capital investment) at the end of 2014. The second phase will see the company spend another 96 billion yen of capital investment and output increasing to 30,000 tyres a day at the end of 2017.
A disapproving finger has been pointed at regrooved passenger car tyres in Malaysia. The country’s assistant infrastructure development minister, Pang Yuk Ming, has cited the use of regrooved tyres as a factor contributing to accidents in Malaysia. His comments were printed by Malaysia’s Daily Express newspaper.
Recognising R H Claydon as “the leading UK truck tyre distributor,” Infinity Tyres has appointed the well-known wholesaler as the exclusive distributor for Infinity Truck (TBR) tyres in the UK. The news follows “a couple of months of discussion and negotiation,” which resulted in the new agreement being concluded. Infinity truck tyres will now be available from all of Claydon’s UK branches – Bury St Edmunds, Falkirk, Scunthorpe, Stockport and Swindon.
Continental Tire the Americas reports that its entire regional steer tyre range has now been added to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership’s list of verified fuel savings technologies with the recent verification Conti's HSR2 (Heavy Steer Regional), HSR1 and HSR truck tyres. This brings the total number of SmartWay verified Conti steer tyres to six. The company also offers three SmartWay verified drive tyres and two trailer tyres.
Iranian researchers at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran have reportedly prolonged the lifetime and reduced the weight of rubbers used in truck tyres by incorporating silicate nanocomposites in their blends. The Iran Nano Initiative Council says that faculty member of the university’s Polymer Engineering Department, Azam Jalali Arani, first formulated the nanosilicate incorporated rubber blend. She then analysed and determined the optimised conditions for preparation of this blend. Following this, blending and production of the nanocomposite sample and analysing and testing the properties of sample vulcanization were performed by rheometric test.
Displaying a wide range of its products on its generously proportioned stand near the main entrance in Hall 3, Kumho marketing manager Wolf Fuder said the Korean manufacturer had experienced a similar level of traffic at its stand to that in the pre-recession year of 2008. However, the make-up of the visitors was different; Fuder commented that there were “more international guests” and fewer from the domestic German market.
The Infinity brand was presented as part of a 240sqm island stand (shared with its manufacturer Shandong Linglong) situated within Hall 3, a fair indication of the global ambitions explained in previous articles (“Infinity Aims to 'Go Deep' with Fast Growing 'Premium Budget' Strategy” on tyrepress.com), since this was where many of the world’s largest manufacturers also placed their stands.
This year Continental Matador Rubber celebrates the 15th anniversary of the ZAO Matador-Omskshina joint venture project, which is based in Omsk in the Russian Federation. The founders, Slovakia’s Matador and Russia’s Omskshina, each contributed a 50 per cent capital share in order to establish a passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyre production facility. The joint-venture was officially registered in the Russian Federation on 17 May 1995.
Michelin Australia has initiated a voluntary recall of some 1,900 Spanish manufactured truck tyres after identifying an issue that may lead to a rapid loss of pressure. The 305/70 R22.5 XZE2+ TL 152/148L tyres were sold between December 2008 and May 2010 and bear the identification DOT HA 3M BJC X followed by the number (for the week and year) 4508 to 1510.
Michelin North America has celebrated the 40th year of production at its Ardmore plant in Oklahoma. The first tyre rolled off the line in 1970, and since that time the facility has grown considerably. Today the Ardmore factory covers almost 140,000 square metres of manufacturing operations and employs more than 1,700 people in the production of passenger car and light truck tyres.
Bridgestone has revised its financial projections the first half of the 2010 fiscal year and released its projections for the entire fiscal year. Its revised first half net sales figure of 1,360,000 million yen (£10.1 billion) is 1.5 per cent higher than that previously given on May 7 and projected net income, now 37,000 million yen (£275.0 million), is 37 per cent higher than the May 7 projection. The company now anticipated annual net sales of 2,900,000 million yen (£21.5), slightly higher than the 2,597,002 million yen earned in the 2009 financial year. Operating income, however, is projected to increase 58 per cent to 130,000 million yen (£966.3 million), projected ordinary income is 113,000 million yen (£839.9 million) and net income to skyrocket from 1,043 million yen to 77,000 million yen (£572.4 million). Despite rising raw material costs, the company still anticipates that operating income, ordinary income and net income will exceed the prior year’s results primarily due to increased tyre unit sales and a corresponding improvement in cost per unit due to increased production levels.
Michelin says it has recorded a 6.5 per cent improvement in stability over 385/65R22.5 tyres after measuring the vehicle overturn angle of a 44-tonne tractor unit and trailer combination fitted with X One MaxiTrailer tyres. The trial took place at QinetiQ’s automotive test facility in Chobham, Surrey, using the only tilt-table in the country capable of accommodating a fully loaded 13.6m commercial vehicle.
Shares in Apollo Tyres Ltd have fallen around five per cent since the announcement of a lockout at its Perambra factory. This plant accounts for nearly a quarter of Apollo’s global tyre production and has a capacity of 850 tonnes per day, yet even before the lockout it was not reaching anything near this amount – and it is thus not surprising that investors are showing signs of nervousness.
Information obtained by Tire Review in the US indicates that Toyo Tire USA is “scrambling to fill truck tyre orders” following its dismissal earlier in the year from the GTY Tire Co. joint venture by partners Continental Tire the Americas and Yokohama Tire Corporation. The tyre maker has taken legal action as a result of this action and, in a lawsuit filed in January, Toyo claims that both Conti and Yokohama are attempting to prevent Toyo from selling any radial truck tyres in the US for five years, and that the partners have declared GTY Tire to be no more. All this, notes Tire Review, may be the indirect result of the “business and capital alliance” partnership struck between Toyo Tire & Rubber and Bridgestone Corporation in May 2008.
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