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.
TBC Brands, one of the largest distributors of private brand tyres in North America, has introduced its newest all-terrain tyre line, the Wild Trail All-Terrain XT, the successor to the Wild Trail All-Terrain.
Less than a year after Tirescanner.com was founded, at the start of November, the business reported that it is live in Florida. This means Tirescanner already covers 1200 postcodes codes, matching consumers with products from a range of hundreds of thousands of tyres and – crucially – connecting them with “the best local retailers”. At the moment this works on a next day install, but the plan is to take this to a same-day level. And more states are said to be coming fast. We’re used to pretty rapid progress when it comes to dotcom start-ups, but such fast growth is more understandable when you consider that Tirescanner is driven by Blackcircles.com founder Mike Welch. Tyres & Accessories recently caught up with Welch in order to find out how the company plans to continue and sustain this growth.
Arlanxeo intends to close its Keltan production unit in Orange, Texas, USA in the second quarter of 2020. Arlanxeo says it will “strive to limit the impact of the closure by working in close cooperation with all affected stakeholders, both internally and externally”.
Cosmo Tires has added a mileage warranty to its passenger and light truck tyre line-up. The Tire Group International brand also has a “recap and casing warranty” on all its truck and bus tyres. Together they comprise the new “Cosmo Tires Warranty Suite”, the company states. In addition to adding more than 10 new sizes to its comprehensive road hazard programme, Cosmo also provides a mileage warranty of up to 45,000 miles on its RC-17 and El Jefe HT lines.
In the USA, Yokohama Avid S34RV tyres have been selected as OE on the 2020 Chrysler Voyager. The fitment covers the North American market, including Canada and Mexico, in size 235/65R17 104T. The Voyager is now available for purchase.
On the other side of the Atlantic Galgo and Cooper Tires have partnered to “increase productivity, meet customer needs and provide cost savings, by collaborating to align product warranties on new tyres”.
Yokohama Tire Corporation has a new vice president of Information Technology. Pavan Desaneni succeeds Wasi Ahmed in this capacity and will report to Tom Masuguchi, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the tyre maker’s North American business.
Continental celebrated the grand opening of its Clinton, Mississippi, tyre factory on 16 October 2019. with a grand opening ceremony yesterday. The celebration marks the completion of the construction process, which began in 2016. Approximately 300 guests, including state and local officials, along with community members, customers, and suppliers as well as 250 Continental employees joined the event.
Michael Graber will take over as vice president of sales at Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. on 1 January 2020. His appointment to this role follows the impending retirement of senior vice president, Randy Gaetz.
Just over two years after groundbreaking, Nokian Tyres officially opened its new North American production facility. A ceremony was held at the Dayton, Tennessee plant on 2 October to mark the start of operations. The facility is currently engaged in trial production and is expected to be ready to make tyres for commercial use in early 2020.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) is developing a public, international corporate bond to finance the company’s ownership of forthcoming recycling plants for end-of-life vehicle tyres. The work to develop the bond is being carried out in collaboration with the London-based financial adviser, Zenzic Partners.
The U.S. Senator representing the home state of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has written to the tyre maker, imploring it to improve the renumeration and treatment it gives workers at its plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Sherrod Brown, Senator for Ohio, urged Richard Kramer, Goodyear’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, to “take immediate steps” to improve both. He also criticised Goodyear’s decision to recently prevent Members of the United States Congress from touring the facility.
Magna Tyres Group shares that it has opened a sales office in the USA. Its premises in Fort Lauderdale, Florida opened on 1 September and is the company’s second office in North America. Magna Tyres Group has been present in the region since establishing a sales office in Canada at the start of this year.
In the US, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (Cooper) is recalling certain Roadmaster RM852 EM tyres. According to a NHTSA recall notice published on 23 August 2019, the problem is that the “innerliner gauge may be too thin, allowing the tyre sidewall to fail.”
Sailun Group Co., Ltd. has issued a new timetable for the completion of its project to add capacity for larger rim passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres at its Dongying factory in China. The self-funded investment to add 15 million units of capacity will now be implemented by December 2020 rather than this year, as originally planned. According to Sailun Group, the level of investment in the project and proposed usage of the funds remains the same.
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