truck tyres Archives - Page 150 of 207 - Tyrepress

Truck Tyres

Posts

The Sky’s the Limit

Kings Road Tyres, in conjunction with Michelin, has helped a team of British explorers carry out an unlikely journey from London to Timbuktu – not by plane or train, but by flying car. The Parajet Skycar is a road legal version of an off road buggy that can be set up to either drive wheels when on the road or power a rear mounted propeller when it takes to the skies. In flight a large fabric wing gives the Skycar lift whilst the propeller provides the necessary forward thrust.

The Parajet Skycar set off from London at the end of January and travelled down through France and Spain before flying the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco in North Africa. From Morocco the team travelled through the disputed lands of Western Sahara, into Mauritania and across the Sahara to Timbuktu in Mali.

16th April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Retreading ‘Definitely Worth Considering’, says Conti

Numerous companies have experienced a drop in orders since the start of the financial crisis, and this downturn in business has in many cases been paired with rising costs. Economising is therefore of the utmost importance in 2009. But where should we start? Continental is convinced that truck tyres can still offer the transport industry considerable savings potential in overall operating costs. A second tyre life almost doubles the mileage and reduces costs by up to fifty per cent.

8th April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental to Intensify Cooperation With Partners

A central part of every sales and marketing strategy that is based upon premium products is the guaranteed quality of these products and a highly diversified product portfolio that addresses customer requirements. Continental has in recent times achieved some noteworthy successes in both these strategic areas through the introduction of new products from its truck tyre division, such as the “Continental HTR 2” trailer tyre. The manufacturer has brought together its entire retreading business activities under the “ContiLifeCycle” banner, including its most recent substantial developments, such as an intensified cooperation with the well-known German retreader Reifen Ihle and with the Italian Marangoni Group. All of this helps Continental to literally become a full-line supplier in the sense that it can deliver what premium customers demand: more than just new tyres that are long lasting and help save fuel – instead it delivers a full approach that helps to cut down on costs per kilometre and benefits the environment (although this typically is not the primary goal of tyre buyers). As Eckhard Wilanek, managing director of Continental’s fleet & retread business, points out, all this cannot be achieved without the help of retreading.

Like many other new tyre manufacturers, Continental has for a number of years been committed to retreading – a sector of the industry that used to have a “dirty image”, but has now become respectable. As Eckhard Wilanek says, there are primarily two key reasons why its reputation has changed in recent times. The first of these is very simple: By the time the bite of the global financial and economic recession began to be felt last autumn, fleet operators and freight forwarders were experiencing increasingly strong pressure on their bottom lines. Everybody is short of money. In these unprincely times when ‘cash is king’, economic pressures convince fleet managers that lower-priced alternatives make more sense than new tyres. So while one company will then decide to go for cheap imported tyres from the Far East (without investing into a valuable casing), another company may opt for retreading. It is important to note that the obvious advantages of retreading and the inclusion of retreads into a fleet’s tyre management makes sense at all times, whether good or bad.

7th April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Marangoni to Restructure “Tyre Retreading” Business Area

“Our company, like other companies that operate in the tyre sector, is not, and has not been, an island in itself.“ With these words, Brenno Benaglia explains the reach of the current economic recession and its consequences, which are shaping up to be structural rather than cyclical. Despite a clear cut in truck and passenger car retread production and sales figures, the sales & marketing director for Marangoni’s Tyre Retreading business area points out that the Italian company is sticking to the growth and expansion strategy it presented two years ago.

6th April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Fedima Offers ”Widest Product Line-Up“

The retreading market is – just like the new tyre market – highly diversified. A retreading market segment that usually doesn’t automatically spring to mind, even though it offers retreaders good sales opportunities and kudos aplenty, is motorsports. It is this specific market segment that the leading Portuguese retreader, R31, with focusing on with its “Fedima” retreading brand. Furthermore, as the company’s German distribution partner points out, Fedima – a Bridgestone Qualitread retreading partner – has in particular acquired a reputation for its 4×4 and light truck tyre retreads for road and off-road applications. R31, or rather Fedima, as the company is usually and simply called, continues to invest into these market segments.

3rd April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Launches Five New Truck Tyre Sizes

In the midst of extremely tough market conditions, Continental’s truck tyre division has announced a number of new additions to its line-up. Eight variants of its second-series R (regional), L (long distance) and W (winter) truck tyres are available in five sizes -295/80, 315/80, 315/70, 295/60 and 315/60. This new generation of tyres, comments Conti, has been developed from scratch and is made from high-quality products for tough everyday use with the single aim of clearly reducing costs in the transport industry.

27th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Wide Single Truck Tyres 6-10% More Efficient – US Study

Michelin North America has reported on a 383-page report made available in mid-March the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This report, says Michelin, confirms that wide single tyres are more fuel-efficient than duals on heavy trucks. This conclusion is based upon data collected from more than 700,000 real-world miles driven by six instrumented tractors and 10 trailers over the course of four-years.

25th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Clairoix Tyre Workers ‘Egg’ Bosses

A small number of workers at Continental AG’s Clairoix passenger tyre factory reportedly egged their bosses in a meeting taking place in nearby Reims. According to the AFP news agency, hundreds of angry workers gathered outside the hotel in which the meeting was being held to protest at the recently announced closure of the Clairoix plant.

On 12 March French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he wished to make sure Continental was keeping its promises and respecting French legal procedures. However, the Journal du Dimanche quoted Continental vice president responsible for passenger car/light truck tyres, Bernhard Trilken, as saying Continental AG “scrupulously” followed French law with relation to the announced plant closure.

16th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental to Close Hanover and Clairoix Tyre Plants

Continental AG has opted to end production at its Hanover, Germany (truck tyre) and Clairoix (passenger car) production plants. Some 1900 employees at the two plants will be affected (780 in Hanover and 1120 in Clairoix). Truck tyre production at the company’s Puchov, Slovakia, (Continental Matador Rubber) will also be cut by 20 per cent.

Describing the current OE and replacement market trends as “steadfastly dire” a Continental statement explained that the company is basing the production cuts on the prediction that the market will not recover enough in the short or medium-term future to utilise existing production levels. Officials explained that the lack of demand has resulted in overcapacities of 15 million passenger and 1.7 million commercial vehicle tyres. The planned cuts focus on the Hanover and Clairoix plants, the statement added.

11th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

BATO Distribution Center Earns Honors

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations regional distribution centre at Cecil Commerce Center in Jacksonville, Florida, was named the “Industrial Project of the Year” at the annual National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. The distribution centre, BATO’s largest in the country, is a one-million-square-foot, $44 million facility on 63.3 acres at Cecil Commerce Center. The distribution centre has a significant impact at Cecil and has indirectly created more than 200 jobs at JAXPORT, according to BATO.

With capacity for more than a million tyres ranging from small passenger and industrial to commercial truck tyres, this centre supplies tyres and automotive parts to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. In addition, the distribution centre will ultimately supply the entire U.S. with imports from Latin America and the eastern half of the U.S. with tyres from Japan and other Asian countries.

“We are happy to be in Jacksonville — the people of this community have been great to work with,” said Steve Shelton, vice president of logistics and supply chain management, BATO. “The city of Jacksonville, the city council and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission helped us every step of the way. They’ve proven to us that Jacksonville is a great place to live and do business. We are very fortunate to have such great partners in this endeavor.” (Tire Review/Akron)

9th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Kumho Official US Series Tyre

Kumho has been named the official tyre of the new Traxxas Off Road Championship (TORC) Series. In addition, Kumho will supply tyres to Scott Douglas in the Pro 4 class and to Chad Hord in Pro Lite class of the short course off-road racing series.

“We’re looking forward to continuing our participation in short course off-road racing,” said Rudy Consolacion, Kumho Tire USA’s motorsport manager. “This will be our ninth year of competition, and we’ll once again run with some of the best in the business. Scott and Chad have both won short course off-road championships and prove the performance, toughness and durability of our light truck tyres every time they take the green flag.” (Tire Review/Akron)

5th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Increases its European OE Market Share

During 2008, Continental’s market share of the European original equipment market is said to have increased from 30 per cent to over 32 per cent. In contrast to this growth, the company reports it “sacrificed” some of its “unprofitable business” in the NAFTA states and South America, reducing its market share to 14 per cent – as planned. In total, Continental sold almost 40 million original equipment passenger and light truck tyres last year. The German company is anticipating fewer sales to vehicle manufacturers in 2009 and expects the market will pick up again in the fourth quarter. At the same time, Conti reports it will continue to focus on profitable deals in NAFTA countries. Supplies to Asian car manufacturers, which last year accounted for 0.7 million tyres, are forecast to remain fundamentally unchanged.

4th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Deldo Announces Exclusive Sailun Contract

When Tyres & Accessories recently spoke to TRIB managing director Harvey Brodsky, he singled out Sailun as a Chinese manufacturer of new tyres that has in recent times paid close attention to product quality. “You will hear more from them,” stated Brodsky. One place we will hear more from them is through the Belgian based wholesaler Deldo.

4th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Marangoni to Restructure “Tyre Retreading” Business Area

“Our company, like other companies that operate in the tyre sector, is not, and has not been, an island in itself.“ With these words, Brenno Benaglia explains the reach of the current economic recession and its consequences, which are shaping up to be structural rather than cyclical. Despite a clear cut in truck and passenger car retread production and sales figures, the sales & marketing director for Marangoni’s Tyre Retreading business area points out that the Italian company is sticking to the growth and expansion strategy it presented two years ago.

27th February 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Compound Interest

Road transport dominates Europe’s haulage business, with over 80 per cent of total freight in the region shipped by this means. The story is much the same in North America and in most world markets, and the pressure to remain competitive is high. Opportunities to reduce operating costs without compromising the standard of service are limited, and fuel economy is viewed as one of only a few factors that can be positively manipulated. Indeed, the September 2008 PricewaterhouseCoopers report “The Truck Industry’s Green Challenge: headwind or competitive edge?” identified fuel economy as the road transportation industry’s number one purchasing criteria. Yet an innovation widely embraced by manufacturers of passenger car tyres, the use of silica in the compound to facilitate lower rolling resistance, has remained beyond the commercial sector’s reach – until now. In November 2008, two established providers of solutions for the tyre industry, Rhodia and Dow Corning, announced the formation of an alliance to address this problem. The result of their joint work is already on the road.

24th February 2009/by Tyrepress Editors