Across the Atlantic they are called tires, while over here we use a “Y” and say tyres. This tag provides the latest tyre business news emanating from the United States of America (USA), whichever way you spell it.
Hankook Tire says it is aiming for championship success in the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) after signing up to support driver Toni Gardemeister and his team. The Finnish driver will contest selected rounds in a Hankook shod Skoda S2000, beginning with next month’s Rally Canarias.
Continental Tire the Americas will increase prices on all Continental, General and Ameriseal brand commercial vehicle tyres by 10 per cent, effective April 1. Citing the continued escalation of raw material and energy costs, the tyre maker said the increase will affect all replacement sales channels in the US.
Michelin North America’s newly-released 2011 fact sheet reports regional sales of US$8.2 billion for the tyre maker in 2010, a 17.1 per cent increase on a year earlier and 34 per cent of Michelin’s total global sales. Last year Michelin employed approximately 21,400 people in the North America region, some 500 more than in 2009. This small growth in employee numbers occurred in the US and Canada, with the employee head count dipping slightly in Mexico.
Kenda USA officials say that despite Kenda Rubber’s decision to sell its ownership stake in Cooper Kenda Tire, the move is a positive for the company. At the start of March, Cooper Tire & Rubber bought out Kenda Rubber’s 50 per cent share in their joint venture passenger tyre production facility in China. According to Kenda, the plant only produced Cooper branded and Cooper associate brand passenger, 4×4 and light commercial tyres, and thus the sale “has no impact to the current supply of Kenda products.”
Toyo Tires has announced today that it will support motorsports competitors across the USA through contingency programs, meaning amateur racers in a variety of disciplines can win cash and prizes if running on the company’s tyres. Disciplines eligible for the payments include SCCA racers, NASA road racers and SCORE-International desert racers.
The race to acquire Evonik Industries’ carbon black business has narrowed following the withdrawal of Phillips Carbon Black from the final round of the bidding process. Dow Jones Newswires reports the company failed to submit a bid before the final deadline, leaving three or four contenders in the running – Advent International, Triton Partners, Rhone Capital, and possibly Cabot Corp., are said to still be interested.
Goodyear’s brand event in Seville earlier this year (a report will be published in March’s Tyres & Accessories) saw the company talking up a safety message through its promotion of its new Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 and UltraGrip 8 tyres, but the company plans to do more than provide increased safety features through its products. European brand director Hugues Despres announced that “the Goodyear Blimp will take the lead on a number of road safety initiatives as it becomes the focal point for Goodyear’s consumer based activities and events.” This will be the Blimp’s first return to Europe for over 10 years, embarking on the 2011 Goodyear Safety Tour.
Dunlop has announced that its Geomax tyre is the choice of factory-backed teams from Honda, Yamaha and KTM in both MX1 and MX2 classes of the 2011 Motocross World Championships. Dunlop’s links with Motocross go back to the beginnings of the sport. The brand has a “race-to-road” (or in this case “off-road”) policy with motorsport, and using it as a “high-pressure development laboratory teaches the designers important lessons,” which can be passed on to customers, incorporated directly into the production tyre range.
With four locations spanning northern to southern England, Tyre Maintenance Ltd says it has long been “committed to best practice in used tyre recycling”, a fact it intends to publicise in 2011 with TIF Responsible Recycler Scheme branding. Throughout 2011 Tyre Maintenance outlets, vehicles, documentation and letter heading will be progressively branded with the RRS logo and staff will be tutored to understand just what this implies for the customer and for the environment.
ATS Euromaster is to supply the Giti Tire manufactured Primewell brand of truck. Primewell tyres are already sold in Asia, North America, South America and mainland Europe. Giti Tire is reportedly the fourth largest radial truck tyre manufacturer in the world.
Richard Lyons, Giti sales director – Europe, said: "We were looking for a large national company whose values reflected our own focus on quality, innovation and the environment, and ATS Euromaster ticked every box. Fleets of all sizes are using Primewell tyres around the world and have commented on the difference they are making to costs and performance levels. We have every faith that our partnership with ATS Euromaster will help us swiftly establish a similar reputation in the UK commercial vehicle sector."
Following the publication of Giti subsidiary Giti Tire Company’s full year 2010 figures, Tom McNamara, vice president of sales for Giti Tire USA, has brought clarification to what these mean in the context of wider business.
According to McNamara, Giti Tire Corporation stated in its 2010 annual report that it had made timely price adjustments following the industry price movement in an effort to mitigate the increase in raw material prices and the effect of fluctuating exchange rates. Some published reports incorrectly attributed the decrease in net profit to not raising selling prices in 2010.
The China Economic News Service reports that the Taiwan’s based Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) intends to invest US$300 million establishing a synthetic rubber production facility in China’s Zheijiang Province. Construction of the plant Ningbo plant is expected to begin in October 2011 with volume production commencing in two years’ time. Initial output is given at 50,000 tons of IIR (isobutylene-isoprene rubber) per annum, with the tyre industry tipped to be the largest consumer of this. CENS reports that growing domestic demand from Chinese tyre makers has triggered FPG’s entry into the rubber industry. Furthermore, the company is said to be contemplating three other China based projects related to tyre production; these would require a further investment of $200 million.
On April 1, Nexen Tire America will implement price increases of up to eight per cent on its tyre ranges in the US and Canada. In announcing the price adjustment in a letter to customers, John E. Aben, the company’s vice president sales and marketing referred to rising raw material costs and particularly the “uncertainty in the cost of natural rubber.”
Prices for Pirelli consumer products in the United States are to rise over the coming months. On March 1, 2011, the price of moto tyres will increase three per cent, while a five per cent increase for car and light truck tyres will be implemented on April 1. The tyre maker says increasing raw material costs, particularly natural rubber, are the reason behind this price hike.
Toyo Tire USA Corp will increase tyre prices across its passenger, light truck, commercial truck and off-road ranges on 1 March by an average of 8 per cent, a company statement said today. “This price increase is due to the continued rise in raw material costs,” said John Hagan, senior director of sales operations.
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