TyreSafe issues tips for caravanners
The sun is finally shining and summer – if somewhat belatedly – has arrived. Many caravanners are taking to the roads and TyreSafe has issued a reminder not to overlook caravan tyre pressure and tread depth.
The sun is finally shining and summer – if somewhat belatedly – has arrived. Many caravanners are taking to the roads and TyreSafe has issued a reminder not to overlook caravan tyre pressure and tread depth.
Continental has released details of its upcoming Eurobond offer. It says it will issue a bond with a volume of at least €500 million and a term to maturity of five years, and intends to use the issue proceeds thereof for the partial refinancing of its bond issued in September 2010. The offer is open to investors residing outside the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. The issue volume and bond conditions are expected to be determined in the next few days.
The theme of globalisation loomed large over Chinese tyre manufacturer Triangle’s latest Global Business Summit, held in the China Hall of the older Grand Tower of Pudong, Shanghai’s Shangri-La Hotel. While the chairman of the board Ding Yuhua’s conference starting theme speech riffed on the theme with regard to manufacturing processes, employee base and international trends, the presence of delegates from around the world reinforced the message the world’s 16th largest tyre manufacturer’s message – Triangle suppliers from three continents travelled with Tyres & Accessories to the Shangri-La from Pudong International, to underline a point. In the coming year, Ding Yuhua said that Triangle is seeking to “speed up the transformation and upgrade [its] manufacturing to synchronise with the global economy,” while focusing on the environmental standards Triangle now characterises as part of the “mainstream” in the post-REACH, post-labelling landscape – in China as well as the rest of the world. This involves greater investment in green production technology that he says is yielding a “four per cent increase in energy efficiency yearly”.
In June Hankook Tyre UK marked the ongoing service of its staff and presented members of the team with awards for outstanding service. The lunch recognised the 10 year anniversary for two members of its senior staff who both started work at the company in 2002.
UK sales director, Barrie Horrocks, was awarded for his outstanding service after celebrating 10 years with the company last year. Horrocks joined the company as commercial sales manager, a role he was in for 9 years before being promoted to sales director in 2011.
Michelin has renewed its commitment to the NASCAR Whelen Euro-Series (the new name for the former Euro-Racecar NASCAR Touring Series). The tyre maker has been involved in the US-imported championship since 2009 as technical partner and tyre supplier, and has developed two tyres for the mechanically uncomplicated cars used in NASCAR. These are the Michelin S9C slick (33/70-15) and P2E rain tyre (33/70-15).
Marangoni Retreading Systems has inauguration a new manufacturing plant in Argentina, in the city of Alvear, Santa Fe. This new plant brings the total number of sites operating around the world and featuring Ringtread lines to five, all part of the Marangoni Group division specialising in pre-cure retreading.
Aeolus recently invited its distributors to spend a weekend in Tuscany at a demonstration event presented in partnership with Italian importer Intergomma.
“We want to give our customers a hands-on opportunity to experience the performance promise of our car tyres and above all, to try them out for themselves,” explained Thomas Wohlgemuth, general manager Western Europe. “Our programme has attracted strong interest from our distributors. To date, they have had excellent experiences with our truck and EM products and now they want to find out exactly if these experiences can also be transferred to the Aeolus CAR tyre range.”
Is this the opening shot in the anticipated round of consolidation within the tyre industry? Or is it merely an expression of courage, or cockiness, with Indian tyre manufacturer Apollo in the role of a predator, seeking to grasp the much-larger rival Cooper as prey and in doing so exposing itself to the risk that the US$2.5 billion price will land it in debt above its head? Is attack the best form of defence or has the Indian company overreached with this ambitious and financially-edgy expansion plan?
There are signs that new car demand is recovering as the SMMT reports that new vehicle registrations broke the million car market in the year to June 2013. This represents growth of some 10 per cent in the first half of 2013 totalling some 1,163,623 units. It was the 16th successive monthly rise in June, with this figure growing 13.4 per cent to 214,957 units.
All sectors grew, but private demand increased the most over the first half of the year, up 17.1 per cent, after a 21.3 per cent rise in June.
On 1 July, the EU family grew with the addition of more than four million Croatians. Starco has welcomed its colleagues in Croatia into the European Union and says that time has proven the wisdom its decision to invest in the country.
Korean tyre manufacturers have outperformed the Korean Kospi index year-to-date. According to an investor’s note published by financial analyst at Deutsche Bank, the strong showing has come thanks to “a sharp decline in raw material costs, strong earnings delivery and expectations of demand recovery in in the second half of 2013”, with the latter point welcome news for everyone.
German magazine Off Road’s readers have chosen Goodyear’s Wrangler DuraTrac as the best off-road product in the ‘Traction Tyres’ category. This was the first time the magazine has invited its readers to vote on tyres alongside their favourite vehicles, and the Goodyear tyre beat all the other products to the inaugural edition of this honour.
Developed for the European Rallycross Championship with competitive testing in Germany, Sweden and Norway, Cooper Tire has launched its new 17” wet-weather rallycross tyre. The new tyre has already run in open competition in both Portugal and France, setting fastest laps in the heats. Cooper says its eponymous and Avon brands are established as global rallycross leaders, with these brands supplying the tyres of choice for the vast majority of competitors.
Data from Bridgestone’s Safety Campaign 2012 has revealed that 78.3 per cent of tyres on the 28,700 cars inspected across Europe throughout the year were under-inflated to varying degrees. Additionally, 25.6 per cent of the tyre population was found to be worn below 1.6mm. The company completes a survey during its safety check workshops across Europe each year, and the latest data shows an increase in the number of tyres found to be under-inflated.
An 11-year old racing driver has gained tyre brand Falken’s support alongside her first victory in the National Ministox series. The Japanese manufacturer supplies tyres to Catherine Harris as part of its expanding presence in UK grass roots motorsport. The brand recently announced its intention to back the ANWCC Under-17s AutoSOLO and the K11 Micra Rally series, and is using this involvement as a way of raising the awareness of the importance of tyres to the next generation of car drivers.
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