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.
Bridgestone Americas will spend US$550 million over the coming two years on the expansion and modernisation of its Warren County truck and bus radial tyre plant in the US state of Tennessee. The project will add 380 jobs to the Warren County workforce and expand the plant’s existing footprint by 850,000 square feet (around 79,000 square metres).
Effective 22 August, Rob Lovi is vice-president of sales at Toyo Tire U.S.A. Previously serving as the director of sales, national strategic accounts, Lovi’s promotion is a part of the company’s succession plan following the appointment of Mike Graber to president and chief executive officer earlier this year. Lovi first joined Toyo Tires as a director of sales in July 2018 and brings nearly 18 years of tyre industry experience to the role.
The Firestone Polymer Engineering Pilot Center (PEPC) in Akron, Ohio has become the first Bridgestone facility in North America to gain International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus recognition for sustainable raw material transparency and traceability. PEPC is part of the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center, which serves as a hub for Bridgestone’s entire innovation, research and product development within the Americas region.
US and Canadian wholesaler American Tire Distributors, Inc. (ATD) has expanded its leadership team with the addition of Moid Alwy as chief supply chain officer. In this role, Alwy will oversee a supply chain that ATD describes as “sprawling” and evolve the vision and strategy for the supply chain’s function and innovation.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) intends to raise production capacities at a number of its facilities around the world, but at the same time will remove some products from its portfolio in order to address rising costs. It will also aim for more “flexible” production allocation in response to changes in the business environment.
Toyo Tire Corporation achieved a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in net sales in the first half of 2022, with the total rising to 223,667 million yen (£1.373 billion; 1.626 billion euros). At the same time, operating income came in at 25,972 million yen (£160 million; 189 million euros) in the first half of 2022. Both figures outperformed the companies first-half 2022 forecasts.
Toyo Tire’s Serbia car tyre production plant became operational on 27 July 2022. The news is in line with Europe executives’ mid-July comments, which suggested the factory would start making tyres by the end of July. The latest news is that shipments are now beginning to move out and that the company is planning to “preferentially supply the US until the end of this year [2022]” in order to “meet robust demand there”.
Last November, US-based sustainable materials firm Bolder Industries announced that it had entered into a partnership with major recycler Liberty Tire Recycling. The two companies have now completed a formal agreement outlining their North American partnership.
On 28 June 2022, Huntington Business Credit announced it closed $35 million of new credit facilities with American Kenda Rubber Industrial Co. Ltd. (Kenda USA). According to Huntington Business Credit, the funds were used to “refinance existing indebtedness and provide ongoing working capital growth financing.
Franchisee Josh Hamilton is set to open his fourth Big O Tires store in Payson, Utah on 10 August. During the grand opening, the new location at 921 Turf Farm Road in Payson will offer free tyre balances and rotations and a variety of coupons for Big O specials.
The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) projects total tyre shipments in the USA will reach 342.1 million units this year, respectively exceeding the figure for 2021 and pre-covid 2019 by 2.1 per cent and 2.8 per cent.
As markets and events have reopened during the course of 2022, Triangle has hit the road in a significant way, meeting with and communicating to existing and potential customers alike at events and exhibitions across the continent including: Tire Cologne in Germany, Autopromotec in Italy and the Hillhead OTR event in the UK. Tyres & Accessories met up with executives in Germany, Italy and on home territory in order to find out more about Triangle’s latest products and its increasingly quality-focused European strategy.
Construction work to expand the Sumitomo Rubber USA plant in Tonawanda, New York is progressing following the official groundbreaking at the site on 29 March, and in the coming two to three years the tyre maker will invest US$129 million in a project that will boost production capacity by 50 per cent. After erecting a 5,100 square metre plant building this summer, Sumitomo will install new mixing machines, tyre presses and tyre building machines. Plant manager Tim Sprunger says the expanded facility will feature a high level of automation.
This week marks the 53rd anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the surface of the Moon, a date of particular significance for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Goodyear supplied a number of essential components for this history-making mission and later developed non-pneumatic tyres for the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle. The tyre maker is once again looking spacewards and is developing tyres for a lunar vehicle that in future may extend commercialism to the Earth’s rocky satellite.
Nexen Tire has invested in US autonomous driving start-up May Mobility. Conducting the transaction via its Silicon Valley-based initiative Next Century Ventures (NCV), the Korean tyre maker participated in May Mobility’s US$111 million C Series funding.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
Toyo
Toyo
Jason Aller; LocalWiki
Stephen Goodchild; Tyre Industry Publications Ltd