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.
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.
Instead of just approving the use of its technology under license, Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) intends to introduce its technology worldwide by participating in joint ventures. To facilitate the setting up of such plants in the USA, Enviro’s board of directors has founded a holding company in that market.
With schools soon to be back in session in the US, Cooper Tire’s Tread Wisely programme, a tyre and vehicle safety program for teens and young adults, is encouraging students to check their tyres as part of their back-to-school routine.
Pirelli unveiled a US show sponsorship at Monterey Car Week. Represented at various events throughout the week, Pirelli appeared on both vintage and new cars, sponsoring the Concorso Italiano, which claims to be the world’s largest luxury and exotic Italian car show.
Goodyear has been working with NASCAR on plans to introduce a new 18” tyre in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2021. Goodyear’s director of racing, Greg Stucker said the move to a larger tyre size from the currently used 15” model is to help make the cars more closely resemble those they would drive off the showroom floor. The change would coincide with the introduction of the Generation-7 NASCAR vehicle.
In February, TPMS and sensor-maker Transense announced it had received an order for 50 of its iTrack II tyre monitoring systems for installation in mines in North America. On Tuesday 13 August the company confirmed that Bridgestone is the cooperation partner.
King Country Retread of Friona, Texas, USA has joined the Marangoni Tire North America (MTNA) family of independent retreaders and will be offering Marangoni’s signature brand Ringtread throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The King Country Retread plant has a capacity of over 30,000 retreads a year.
The likelihood of seeing BKT tyres ‘Made in the USA’ appears even more uncertain following an earnings call held by Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (BKT) on 13 August. Although the tyre maker reported three days earlier that the 20,000 tonne per annum factory project was just “in abeyance”, comments made during the call suggest the pause on work is more than temporary.
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