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OE Successes For Yokohama

Yokohama Rubber has been rated by DaimlerChrysler as an A-grade supplier. The Japanese company was evaluated in the areas of Cost, Delivery, Quality and Communications and scored 92 out of a possible 100. Yokohama supplies its Geolandar H/T G038 for the Mercedes-Benz G500. Another company, AMG, which specialises in tuning up Mercedes-Benz vehicles, has chosen Yokohama’s AVS S/T type-1 as OE for the G55 AMG, which is a tuned-up version of the G Class SUV. Tyre size for both front and rear wheels is 285/55 R18 V.

8th November 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli Lands US High Performance OE Contract

In the USA, Pirelli has introduced a new tyre, the P6 Four Seasons. As the name suggests, it is an all-season tyre, which is already OE fitment on a number of European vehicles. In North America, OE contracts have been signed for the Lincoln Town Car and Ford Crown Victoria. The tyre is also undergoing homologation on new models from Jaguar, DaimlerChrysler and BMW. It will be available in 23 sizes for wheels from 15″ to 17″, aspect ratios from 65 to 45 and H, V and W speed ratings.

7th November 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

American Racing Equipment Launch 26 Inch Wheel

American Racing Equipment’s American Racing Wheels, Epic, Motegi Racing and RO_JA brands have introduced 26 new wheels, including a massive 26-inch Epic Icon at the 2002 Specialty Equipment Market Association Show. The 26 inch wheel is targeted at high end luxury vehicles including the all-new H2 Hummer. The chrome-plated luxury Epic line will highlight the 26-inch Icon and the new styles ranging in size from 18- to 26-inches.

7th November 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Rosenthal Buys Fieldens

Neil Rosenthal has acquired Fieldens, the Stowmarket-based supplier of specialist agricultural wheels and tyres and Honda ATV dealer. Neil Rosenthal was formerly Director (Wheels/OE) at tyre and wheel distributors Kirkby (Tyres) and has 15 years’ experience in the business. All 20 existing staff will be retained and Neil will become Managing Director. Financial details of the deal were not revealed.

24th October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Continued OE Growth For Superior

Superior Industries International has announced that it has been awarded new and replacement aluminium wheel supply contracts from General Motors. The new contracts include the Hummer H2; painted and chrome wheels for the Buick LeSabre; and chrome wheels for the Cadillac Escalade. Key replacement contracts include redesigned wheels for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks and the Cadillac Deville. “This new business continues our confidence in our future growth,” said Louis L. Borick, Chairman and President.

24th October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Tough Year For Amcast

Joseph Grewe, CEO at Amcast said, “The year to August 2002 had been a tough year, but things were getting better.” North American wheel division continued to perform well with sales up 25 percent, more than doubling their operating income. Automotive sales increased by 30 per cent in total for the final quarter of the year against the same quarter in the previous year. Improved performance of the wheels operations and cost cutting exercises were offset by losses incurred at the Richmond plant affected by launch problems with five major new product launches. An underestimation of demand from the motor manufacturers forced Amcast to increase purchases and develop new unplanned capacity to meet the requested production flow.Despite the general good news the company performed slightly worse in 2002 than in 2001. Largely due to the problems at Richmond and continued poor performance from Speedline. Flow Control also saw a drop in income of 51 percent due to a lower market and one time IT expenses. However, the company reports that five out of eleven production facilities operated profitably in 2002 against only three out of eleven for 2001.

21st October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin At The Paris Motor Show

Michelin has presented its OCP (Optimised Contact Patch) technology at the Paris Motor Show. With OCP technology wheels can lean, similar to a motor-cycle, thus optimising the contact patch area. The system is being tested by different car companies for use on cars at the upper end of the market. Later on Michelin will bring to market the pressure detection system EnTire which will be developed together with TRW in 2003.Development is also planned of an active air-management-system together with Wabco and the help of TRW and SKF, planned to be on the market in the year 2005. There is news too about ViaMichelin, in co-operation with Tele Atlas, for a on-board CD-ROM for navigation. Finally, Michelin Editions des Voyages has published a series of new travel-guides, including local street-maps, containing information for tourists.

30th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Bosch and Michelin establish joint venture

Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, and the Michelin Group, Clermont-Ferrand, have established a joint venture company for integrated vehicle dynamics management systems. The new company is called Integrated Safety Systems ISS and is based in Paris. The purpose of the joint venture company is the market introduction of new systems resulting from the partners’ joint development activities. In 2001, both companies had announced their cooperation in the fields of tires and chassis control systems, with the objective to improve safety and mobility of automobiles thanks to an optimized coupling between tire and electronic brake control technologies. Bosch produces automotive technology in 140 plants on all 5 continents. In 2001, it achieved sales of € 23.2 billion in this business sector, with 143 000 employees. Last year, the Bosch division chassis systems, a leading manufacturer of braking systems, had 18 000 employees and achieved sales of around € 4.5 billion. Michelin produces and sells tires for all kind of vehicles, including passenger car, light and heavy trucks, 2-wheels, aircraft, agricultural and earthmover vehicles, as well as the US space shuttle, and develops suspension and anti-vibration systems. Michelin counts 80 production sites in 5 continents, has 130 000 employees and sales operations in over 170 countries. The Group achieved around € 15,8 billion sales in 2001.

28th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Alcoa Realigns Business

Alcoa announced today that it has realigned its existing businesses to provide a closer fit with customer needs in the automotive, aerospace, and commercial transportation market sectors. Bob Hughes, 57, Executive Vice President, will lead a new Alcoa Automotive and Allied Products Group, which will include the businesses that support automotive customers by providing electrical distribution systems, cast and forged automotive wheels, cast and assembled components, and other products.

19th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Tiger Wheels Grow

South African Tiger Wheels has benefited from a weak Rand pushing attributable earnings up by 63.3 per cent for the year to June. Revenue was up by 22 per cent and earnings by 49 per cent. According to the company the average euro-to-rand rate of R8.95 had most benefited the German-based division, ATS which became one of the main drivers for the growth in revenue. The company reported an improvement in production at its Babelegi plant in South Africa, increased production from the new Polish facility and the first phase of a new US wheel manufacturing facility at Auburn, Alabama was now under way. The US expansion has come about to meet the demand for wheel rims from DaimlerChrysler.

4th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

New Owners For Alloy Wheels International UK

Allied Wheels International, based in Rochester, Kent, has been bought by Fintrade. It is expected that existing staff will be retained and the company intends to develop a range of wheels for the aftermarket, while continuing with its current OE business.

6th August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin To Supply Las Vegas Monorail

Michelin has been chosen by rail transport company Bombardier Canada to supply wheels and tyres for the new Las Vegas monorail; a nine-car vehicle linking eight hotels and the convention centre. The contract follows an audit of Michelin by Bombardier at Clermont-Ferrand, which proved satisfactory and gave Michelin an A rating.

17th July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Losses Improve At Amcast

Third quarter results from Amcast show the company improving on its position in the previous year. For the previous fiscal year to date sales were similar to this year’s and produced a loss of 25.9 million dollars. This fiscal year to date sales ran to 423.6 million dollars producing a loss of 12 million dollars. Compared to the previous year to date nine out of the company’s eleven operating divisions were showing a profit this year, as against five out of eleven last year. Star of the turnaround is North American Wheels which has shown a six-fold operating income on a sales increase of 24 per cent. The company debt at the start of the year has been reduced by 13.3 million dollars to 185.7 million dollars.

28th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Record Shipments For Superior

Superior Industries International has reported that net income for the first quarter of 2002 has exceeded analyst expectations with revenue and shipments reaching record highs. For the first quarter 2002 net income increased by 7.6 per cent or 0.65 dollars per diluted share. Shipments of aluminium wheels increased by 16 per cent bringing revenue for the first quarter to 186,532,000 dollars, a record for the company and a 12.3 per cent increase on the same quarter for 2001. The results include the write off on non-recurring start up costs of 1.653 million dollars in respect of the launch of the new aluminium suspension parts operation. The joint venture wheel manufacturing operation in Hungary also posts profitable results.

19th April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Alloy Wheel Report, Part 2: Replacement Market Germany 2001”Serious Situation, But By No Means Without Hope …”

After the OE-market for light alloy wheels was examined and discussed in detail in the March issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, the second part of our wheel report focuses on the situation in the international, and specially the German, replacement market situation. In the first part of the introductory article actual developments and trends in the sector are discussed. One trend, for example, is the continuing price struggle of the competitors which has – allied with a stagnating general market situation – had great influence on the wheel business as a whole and has been fought out more and more in the winter segment. One victim of this development was the company Intra/Exip, which had to announce insolvency at the beginning of this year. Furthermore an increasing interest of aftermarket companies in OE-business has to be considered. Parallel to this observation the “spring time offensive” in the aftermarket which was announced by OE-suppliers last year did not take place at all, because these companies (like e.g. Ronal and Borbet) had more than enough on their plates in order to fulfil their OE commitments. In the second part of the introductory article the aftermarket players are ranked according to their sales figures/volumes in 2001. We estimate the complete volume of the German aftermarket in 2001 at 2.65 million units. This figure includes the wheels which have been sold by companies with their own production (e.g. ATS, Artec/RH, BBS, Borbet, Dezent, Ronal, Rial) as well as by the ones without their own production to wholesalers and retailers. Furthermore the wheels that have been sold into the business by passenger car importers are counted and – last but not least – the private brands of the wholesalers themselves (Alcar with “AEZ/Enzo/Dotz”, Interpneu with “Platin” or Brüning with “ProLine”). The number of tuning-wheels sold in Germany amounts to 300,000 additional units. Last year experts predicted a mid term decrease of the market of up to minus 20 per cent over the next four years. Nowadays nobody wants to confirm this fairly negative perspective anymore. “Mid term regressive market” – this is the forecasting formula creating the greatest consensus among the market experts now. One reason for this slightly more positive prediction might be found in the extremely buoyant winter business with alloy wheels that are getting cheaper and cheaper and are accepted more and more as a serious alternative to steel wheels by the end-users. The decrease in other sectors is partly compensated by this. The consequences of the terror threats of the 11th September in New York for the light alloy wheel sector are quite difficult to predict. Should there be a large negative effect on the worldwide sales figures of new cars, this would have an effect on the international wheel suppliers also. First of all this development would hit the OEM-suppliers, with a certain slow-down too in the aftermarket. A certain uncertainty of what the future will bring is the order of the day in the alloy wheel sector. As a result of this uncertainty, some companies have slowed down or stopped their investment programmes, at least for the time being.

17th April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors