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.
The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) and its member companies have voiced their support for a legislative proposal to incentivise retreading. The Commercial Vehicle Fleet Retreaded Tire Utilization Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2022 (H.R. 8165), introduced to the United States Congress this week, would provide tax credits for fleet purchases of US retreaded commercial vehicle tyres.
Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) and Dow recently announced that they have partnered to develop B-Seals, a silicone-based tyre sealant. According to the two companies, B-Seals can be efficiently separated from tyres to promote tyre repairability after a puncture. In addition, the technology is designed to enable end-of-life tyre recycling and extended tyre life.
At the start of May, in the USA, Continental issued a recall of 68,770 two-wheel tyres of which an estimated 10 per cent suffered from cracking in the tread groves during FMVSS 119 endurance testing.
On 2 June 2022, Goodyear recalled up 173,237 model G159 tyres in the USA. The recall has been issued because “some size 275/70R 22.5 G159 tyres installed on motorhomes experienced tread separations”. However, this was not due to tyre manufacturing problems, but rather resulted “from the motorhome manufacturer inadequately specifying reserve loads, as well as overloading and underinflation common to the motorhome application”, according to official documents. The G159 is the subject of long-running legal action in the United States.
American Tire Distributors (ATD) has entered into an agreement to acquire Tires Now, the wholesale tyre distribution business of automotive service and tyre provider Monro, Inc. The transaction brings seven Tires Now facilities across the Southeastern USA, which service more than 3,500 wholesale customer sites annually, into the ATD fold. In addition to servicing these wholesale customers, ATD will now also strengthen its strategic support for the tyre business conducted at more than 1,300 Monro retail outlets.
Triangle Tire has scrapped its plans to a build roughly half-a-billion dollar tyre factory in North Carolina, USA. According to the company, the project which had been strongly supported by local government officials in North Carolina was ended amicably with mutual consent.
This week, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company achieved a further step towards its goal of fully replacing petroleum-derived oils by 2040. Selected products within the Goodyear Metro Miler range, a city transit tyre available to customers in North America, are now produced using a bio-based soybean oil compound that replaces a portion of the petroleum-based materials used.
The effects of the Ukraine war are not present in Nokian’s first quarter reporting, published on 28 April. The company has seen good levels of Q1 growth versus 2021, especially in its car tyre sales, but also in its commercial tyre business. However, with the manufacturer highly leveraged on Russian manufacturing and European sanctions against the country ramping up, it has announced to investors that all bets are off regarding its 2022 forecasts. The negative effects are largely related to passenger car tyre sales – Nokian explains that its “Heavy Tyres” are produced in Finland. It adds that while it has stopped the distribution of these products in Russia, “Nokian Tyres has never sold tyres to the Russian army, and the Russian Federation is not a customer of Nokian Tyres.”
Bridgestone Americas has commenced an exclusive partnership with carbon capture and transformation (CCT) specialist LanzaTech NZ, Inc. to address end-of-life tyre waste. The two companies will co-develop the first dedicated end-of-life tyre recycling process leveraging LanzaTech’s proprietary CCT technology.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has selected Symbio – the joint venture created by Michelin and Faurecia in 2019 with the aim of becoming a world leader in hydrogen mobility – to develop and demonstrate a hydrogen-fuelled, regional-haul Class 8 truck for a state-supported hydrogen mobility project. Symbio will collaborate on this project with Michelin, Faurecia and other industry partners, including energy transitions research and training organisation GTI.
The USA has classified natural rubber as a strategic raw material that serves as a critical ingredient in military, aircraft and truck tyres. The country currently relies on rubber imports for its tyre production but wishes to reduce this dependency, and government and military are thus working with private partners to accelerate commercialisation of natural rubber from dandelions. Goodyear Tire & Rubber will play a key role in achieving this goal.
Hamaton has promoted Enri Osmani, general manager of Hamaton Inc., to vice president of the company’s North American distribution and technical centre. Osmani has worked in the TPMS market for 12 years.
Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) has promoted Ray Polentz to the role of senior director of supply chain and logistics. He will report to YTC president and chief executive officer Jeff Barna.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute has awarded Bridgestone Americas a research grant to advance its optimisation of guayule, a drought resistant, desert shrub that shows promise as a local source of natural rubber for tyre production. Bridgestone has spent more than a decade researching guayule rubber for use in tyres.
Tyres are an essential part of mobility, but are their days numbered? One company believes that its new wheel technology can substitute the traditional rubber tyre used in mining applications and provide an alternative that is “eco-friendly, cost-effective, stronger and safer.”
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