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.
Doubts have surrounded the future of Balkrishna Industries (BKT)’s plans to establish a factory in the USA for the past two and a half years, and now the company has officially ended the project. This decision was agreed upon during a board meeting on Monday.
Towards the end of last year, Linglong Tire announced it would bring its new Hubtrac tyre brand to Europe. The tyre maker also intends to sell this commercial range in the USA, taking advantage of its production site in Thailand and under-construction facility in Serbia to avoid the country’s anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese products.
In the US The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and ConMet announced a strategic collaboration to create combined digital solutions that will “better connect commercial truck fleets to the health of their tyres and wheel ends”. Billed as leveraging big data and utilising predict analytics, ConMet’s existing SmartHub is positioned as a stepping stone en route to autonomous vehicle technology.
The USA will continue to apply anti-dumping and countervailing duties to passenger vehicle and light truck (PLT) tyres from China. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) decided against ending the charging of duties, which have applied to these products since 2015, after determining that doing so would “likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.” Unsurprisingly, the United Steelworkers union applauds the decision.
Hankook Tire’s US subsidiary is working with advanced smart tyre technology and predictive data analytics company Revvo Technologies on a pilot programme that will integrate Hankook SmartFlex tyres with Revvo’s product suite to provide critical tyre-specific data. Data generated, such as real-time alerts, will benefit Junk King, North America’s top-rated eco-friendly junk removal and hauling company.
Less than 24 hours after Joe Biden was sworn-in as the 46th president of the USA, “Trump, the presidential limo and its tyres” – first published in August 2020 was amongst our most popular stories of the day. Of course, in normal circumstances we don’t spend too much time considering presidential limousine fitments. However, “Trump, the presidential limo and its tyres” was a follow-up story to the well-documented Twitter bust-up US president 45 (Donald Trump) had with Goodyear. With this in mind, it is worth looking at what we know so far about the Biden presidency from a tyre perspective.
The dream of securing natural rubber supplies in the vicinity of production facilities and reducing dependency upon hevea rubber plantations has preoccupied Bridgestone Corporation for the past decade. Early in 2018 it announced a collaboration with genomic big data company NRGene to advance the commercialisation of guayule, and today Bridgestone shared the results of this four-year project. The combined effort has resulted in the partners successfully assembling a specific guayule genome.
Marko Ibrahim is the new president of Bridgestone Retail Operations (BSRO), the Bridgestone Americas subsidiary responsible for operating a network of more than 2,200 tyre and vehicle service centres across the United States of America. He succeeds Joe Venezia, who led the organisation since 2017 and has stepped down to pursue a leadership role outside of Bridgestone.
Michelin North America recently announced price increases on selected Michelin and BFGoodrich passenger and light truck tyres.
Continental Tire the Americas has announced plans to increase prices on select Continental and General passenger and light truck tyres in the US market.
Michelin’s commercial vehicle tyre dealer network in the USA has grown to more than 400 locations across the country. Michelin North America has announced that Purcell Tire & Rubber Company (Purcell Tire) is joining the Michelin Commercial Service Network (MCSN) and Michelin Retread Technologies, Inc. (MRTI) and Oliver Rubber Company, LLC (Oliver) retreading networks.
Pre-Q Galgo Corporation has hired Ron Elliott to be its marketing manager in North America. In his role, Elliot will be responsible for leading the marketing direction of the long-term growth strategy for the Pre-Q Galgo brand throughout the United States and Canada.
Anti-dumping duties as high as 98% may be applied to passenger vehicle and light truck tyres entering the USA from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on 30 December that it will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of these products.
A new all-Porsche racing series commences in the USA and Canada next year, and Yokohama will serve as control tyre. The Porsche Sprint Challenge North America is a three-class series contested by the current and previous generations of Porsche 991 GT3 as well as the 718 Cayman Clubsport. All cars will race on Yokohama Advan racing tyres, with the Advan A005 slick the rubber of choice on dry tracks and the Advan A006 serving as wet weather tyre.
ZC Rubber, the world’s 9th largest tyre manufacturer, has unveiled large billboards in four famous in the United States, Australia, Thailand and Germany.
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ConMet
Tyrepress.com / Stephen Goodchild
C-Span
Bridgestone Corporation
Pre-Q Galgo
ZC Rubber