Truck Tyres
(Akron/Tire Review) Kumho Tire USA plans to increase prices on passenger, light truck and commercial truck tyres from the first of June. Depending on the type of tyre, prices will increase up to by up 8 per cent, according to the manufacturer. Continuing price increases for raw materials and rising shipping costs were the reasons cited by David Hudrlik, vice president and director of sales at Kumho. The last time Kumho raised prices was 1 October 2004.
(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone executives along with members of the Mexican government gathered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, to celebrate breaking ground for the company’s new BIRD based tyre plant. Representatives from Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. (BAH), Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT) and Bridgestone/Firestone Mexico, SA. de CV (BFMX) were all present.
(Akron/Tire Review) Michelin North America (MNA) has announced price increases affecting passenger and light truck tyres. OE and replacement tyre prices for Michelin, BFGoodrich, Uniroyal and private and associate brands sold in Canada, Mexico and the US will increase by up to 8 per cent, the tyre maker said. The increases are effective in July and result from “continuing increases in raw material costs,” according to MNA.
Cooper has reported a sharp drop in profits as it feels the effect of the month long strike at its Arkansas plant. Publishing its first quarter results the company said is made $5.2 million or 7 cents per share for the period ended 31 March, compared with $24.3 million (32 cents per share) the year before.
Goodyear Canada has announced that it will construct a new truck retreading factory in Beloeil replacing the existing facility Ville St-Laurent.
The move represents a “strategic choice for Goodyear Canada” said Mr Bernard Plante, general manager for Goodyear Canada. 5.2 million Canadian dollars will be invested in the project, which will produce a 69,000 sq ft building.
(Akron/Tire Review) Initial analysis of NHTSA’s final regulations mandating tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) on all new passenger vehicles shows the new regulations are badly flawed, raising questions about how well they will protect drivers.
And they illustrate clearly just how much sway the car manufacturer lobby has with the safety agency, and how little consideration the logical and correct argument raised by the tyre industry and the automotive aftermarket really received.
Michelin will supply the tyres for the eight Renault Trucks vehicles taking part in the Silk Road 2005 expedition between 2nd April and 9th June. The teams will travel 20 000 km across Europe, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyztan and the Inner Mongolian region of China, following the path of the legendary Silk Road. Michelin will fit the trucks with specially designed all-terrain tyres, sized 395/85 R20 XZL.
The first two months of this year were disappointing for all tyre manufacturers present in Europe. The European replacement market volume for passenger car tyres dropped six per cent and nine per cent for truck tyres.
In comparison the Americans performed better. The replacement market grew three per cent for passenger car tyres and10 per cent for truck tyres.
Pirelli has announced that it has embarked on exclusive negotiations with RoadOne Tyre Co Ltd, a market leader in conveyor belt manufacturing. The new joint venture is to be based in Shandong Province and will manufacture large all-steel radial truck tyres for the domestic market and other export markets in South East Asia. Pirelli sees its latest move confirming its strategy in China, the world’s fastest growing market for road transportation. Negotiations with RoadOne Tyre began after some of the conditions stated in the company’s Letter of Intents with Aeolus Tyre (2004) could not be met.
Goodyear Dunlop has been given planning permission for a new retread facility. The announcement signals the move of the truck tyre retread facility from its existing location to a newly refurbished building at the south end of the company’s Bushbury, Wolverhampton, plant.
(Akron/Tire Review) Workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Texarkana, Arkansas, tyre plant remained on strike today, as talks between the tyre maker and United Steelworkers of America (USWA) negotiators are said to be continuing. USWA represented employees walked off the job 12 March when their contract with Cooper, which had been extended from an earlier 6 March deadline, finally expired.
(Akron/Tire Review) Continental is set to launch three new General brand truck tyres at the Mid-America Trucking show between 31 March and 2 April in Louisville, Kentucky. According to CTNA, the launch will help commemorate the 90th anniversary of the General brand. No further details about the new tyres were provided by CTNA.
Penske Truck Leasing has named The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company as 2004 Tire Supplier of the Year. Goodyear supplies Penske with a variety of truck tyres, including replacement and retreaded. In 2004, Penske extended a primary supplier agreement with Goodyear until at least 2008.
Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK Limited has announced the appointment of Clive Powell as director, commercial business unit, headquartered in Birmingham, West Midlands. Mr Powell joins the UK organisation from his current position as sales director, Truck Tyres Europe. The new commercial business unit director will be responsible for the truck and bus tyre business, including the development of the TruckForce service network in the UK. Mr Powell’s predecessor, Wim Reijmerink, left the organisation to pursue other interests, the company said.
Richard Johnson, managing director, UK Operations stated: “Across Europe, Clive has played a major role in driving the development of our ‘best in class’ support services such as FleetOnlineSolutions, RoadsideAssistanceServices and TruckForce. We are confident that Clive can accelerate the successful implementation of these services in the UK to reaffirm our leading position in the truck and bus tyre market.”
Michelin will not buy the whole Trenco Egyptian conglomerate, as some new sources had reported. According to an article in French newspaper, Les Echos, Michelin was likely to buy the conglomerate for $10 million, despite its daily losses of $40,000 and debts of $200 million. Deutsche Bank analysts contacted Michelin and report that the company denied being interested in the whole conglomerate, but only in the Nisr tyre brand. Nisr is much smaller in comparison, producing only 30,000 tyres each year. Egypt is the 5th largest North African market with an annual volume of 3 million passenger tyres and 700,000 truck tyres. This is an attractive market for Michelin which aims to expand its production capacity in this region, the analysts believe.
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