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Tiger Auto Mauls a 19 Per Cent Headline Earnings Increase

Tiger Automotive has thrived since its unbundling from Tiger wheels last December, and the company’s latest financial bear testimony to the wheel and tyre distributor’s good health. Tiger Automotive reports that in its first full year as a company listed with South Africa’s JSE stock exchange in its own right, it has achieved a 19 per cent increase in headline earnings, to Rs 1.242 (£0.085) a share. Revenue has risen 17.3 per cent to Rs 1.1 billion (£75.3 million). The company reports that these results counter the typical pattern of lower earnings in the second half. At the half-year stage, headline earnings were 15.2 per cent up at Rs 0.61 (£0.042), and the forecast was for a slight increase in full-year earnings.

“This pleasing rise in earnings was achieved because we were able to rectify – although not completely – problems that impacted on the first half,” said group managing director Keith Rivers.

Pre-tax profit (for the year to 30 June) increased 15.5 per cent to Rs 101.3-million (£6.9 million), while attributable profit was up by almost Rs 10 million to Rs 73.7 million (£5.04 million). In lieu of an annual dividend, the company is making a capital distribution of Rs 0.49 (£0.03) a share.

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Yokohama to Build Factory in Romania

Romania’s national press agency Rompres has released information that indicates Yokohama Rubber intends to establish a factory in the nation’s Calarasi region, east of Bucharest. CEO Fumiro Nishi announced during a meeting on September 6 that the Japanese tyremaker is seeking a site close to the capital that offers easy road and rail access plus the added bonus of transportation via waterways.

Calarasi is situated between the Danube and the motorway linking Bucharest with the Black Sea port of Constanta.

‘We suggested sites that are available in the region, and the Japanese now need to draw up an investment plan if they want to set up in Calarasi,’ said Cornel Coman, deputy head of the regional administration.

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NTDA Supports Tyre Safety Month

NTDA chairman Peter Gaster has called on members to support the TyreSafe tyre safety month. According to an article on the association’s website Gaster said: “This initiative is a fantastic opportunity for all retailers to promote the tyre safety message and encourage motorists into their depots for free tyre checks. NTDA is right behind this exciting initiative and we hope that all our members will use the excellent array of posters and leaflets which are available to promote the campaign.”

Independent tyre retailers, garages and franchise dealers are being encouraged by TyreSafe to offer their customers free tyre safety and pressure checks. According to TyreSafe, almost 25 per cent of cars and vans on the roads in the UK have at least one badly worn or illegal tyre and tyre safety checks are an excellent way for retailers to encourage motorists to visit their premises.

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Toyo USA to Increase Prices

Effective 1 October 2007, Toyo Tire (USA) Corporation will increase the prices of consumer products by 3.5-per cent. According to Steve Weinger, senior vice president, sales & marketing, “due to continued increases in raw materials, energy, and transportation costs we must adjust our prices on consumer products. As always, Toyo remains dedicated to maintaining the highest level of product quality and customer service.”

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Norbar Keeps VX Racing On Track

In motor racing, accurate torque control of threaded fasteners is vital and the dangers of under- or over-tightening these are self evident. The driver needs the confidence to be able to push the car to the limit and the workshop has to have faith in the design integrity of each single component.

Norbar Torque wrenches have long been the tools of choice for the Triple 8 team, the company behind VX Racing – the most successful team in the history of the British Car Touring Championship. Says chief mechanic Martin Ellis: “We use a number of Norbar Torque wrenches here, ranging from the ¼” drives for the small suspension and gearbox sub-assemblies, right up to 1″ wrench that we use for the suspension bearings.

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Fickle Power Supply, Importers Blamed for Dunlop Nigeria’s Woes

The Chairman of Dunlop Nigeria Jabez Lawuyi chose the company’s September 4 Annual General Meeting as the occasion to announce that the country’s chronically unreliable energy supply has reduced the tyremaker’s production and sales capacity by 20 per cent during the first half of 2007.

Nigeria’s unreliable electricity supply prompted Dunlop Nigeria to set up the means to operate using natural gas power several years ago. However, Mr. Lawuyi reported that this alternate source of power has proven to be no more reliable. “The supply of electricity has remained epileptic while that of gas has deteriorated significantly that together has led to a 20 per cent loss in the volume of production and sales of tyres in the first half of the year,” Lawuyi said.

Mr. Lawuyi also used the AGM as a platform to hit out at tyre importers, whom he accused of manipulating import tariffs in order to flood the local market with “substandard and under-priced tyres,” a practice he believes contributed to the closure of Michelin’s Nigerian operations in January. It was also his duty to inform shareholders than the company has achieved an annual turnover of N5 billion (£20 million) and a pre-tax loss of N370 million (£1.5 million).

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Bridgestone OE for New Hybrid Lexus in US

Bridgestone Turanza EL42 tyres have been selected by Lexus as OE for North American models of the company’s all-new LS 600h L luxury hybrid sedan. The specific tyre fitted as one of the options to the world’s first full V8, all-wheel-drive hybrid vehicle is the all-season Turanza EL42 in size P245/45R19 98V, a tyre Bridgestone Firestone North America Tire believes will deliver the sleek styling, low noise and outstanding performance in dry and wet conditions prerequisite on a vehicle that has a US market starting price in excess of $100,000.

The 2008 Lexus LS 600h L powertrain combines a 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine with two powerful electric motors that reduce emissions by 70 per cent compared with a vehicle fitted with a conventional engine – earning it a Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) rating. “Bridgestone Firestone is proud to support vehicles that minimise fuel use and environmental impact,” said Michael Martini, BFNAT president, Consumer OE Tire Sales.

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Michelin Rubber for Green Friendly Concept Car

At the upcoming Frankfurt show Citroen will display a concept car with a strong all-round environmental flavour. The vehicle is intended to demonstrate that cars needn’t be complex, expensive or ecologically wasteful to produce, and even the tyres get the green stamp of approval.

The rubber featured on the Citroen C-Cactus, a car based upon the C-4, is recycled. Produced by Michelin, the low-profile 21-inch tyres are not only environmentally friendly in terms of their use of recycled materials – they also provide low rolling resistance, a quality that leads to lower fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

The non-tyre parts of the C-Cactus have also been given the treatment. Power is provided by a diesel-electric hybrid unit consisting of a 70bhp diesel engine and a 30bhp electric motor, which combined deliver an exceedingly frugal 83mpg and carbon dioxide emissions of just 78g/km. The car’s top speed of 93mph may be sniffed at by some yet it is sufficient to earn a speeding ticket on any UK road or motorway, and for low speed city driving an electric only mode provides zero emission running.

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Goodyear Keeps it Local in China

The recently reported capacity expansion plans for Goodyear’s Dalian plant in China – to 17,000 tyres a day or 10 per cent of global production – will mostly be supplied from local sources. Over a number of years Goodyear has shared its technology with a number of Chinese companies, and these firms are now playing an ever-larger role in keeping the materials required for making tyres coming into the plant.

Local suppliers include Jiangsu Xingda Steel Tyre Cord Co. Ltd., who provide steel cord; Jiangsu Junma Group for nylon 6 yarn; China Shenma Group for nylon 6,6; and carbon black supplier Jiangxi Black Cat Carbon Black Co. Goodyear plans to source between £300 million and £500 million worth of materials from China by 2010.

And just as much of what enters the factory is from local sources, much of what comes out is also staying close to home. A large chunk of the Dalian factory’s output is being taken up by Chinese based vehicle manufacturers for OE fitment. Goodyear is the exclusive tyre supplier for BMW in China, and the tyremaker also supplies to Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Great Wall Motor Co., Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., as well as local Toyota, Nissan and Honda operations.

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Exports from India Growing Steadily

The value of tyre exports from India has grown at an average of 11 per cent per annum during the last decade, according to India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association. The current value of exports of all category of tyre is Rs 26 billion (£315.5 million). During the 1996/97 financial year total exports only amounted to Rs 8.32 billion (£101 million).

Since the start of this current decade the strongest export growth has been in the passenger car sector, with exports increasing more than tenfold to 966,046 units in 2006/07. While this amount is still dwarfed by exports of truck tyres (2,276,049 units) and tyres for light commercial vehicles (1,599,230), the high level of passenger car tyre radialisation achieved by tyremakers has provided them with a product that can potentially gain acceptance in many more overseas markets.

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VMI Launches New OTR Radial Builder

Netherlands based supplier of equipment and services for producers of passenger car, commercial and OTR radials, VMI, has launched its first radial VMI OTR Tire Building system. This system utilises flat drum building technology and assembles green tyres in sizes between 17.5 R25 and 24.00 R35. Manufacture is performed in a single process, including the application of the tread. This unique method of assembling radial OTR tyres utilises the transfer rings and other technology already tried and tested in VMI’s tyre manufacturing equipment for truck and bus radials.

This high capacity OTR radial machine produces radials at a rate of up to 2.5 tyres per hour for 24.00 R35” tyres. VMI reports that downtime for size changes is low because of a minimum amount of tooling and the maximum use of universal computer controls.

VMI’s R&D team has been working for a year and a half to build the company’s first OTR radial machinery, and they are confident the end result will answer the needs of the booming OTR tyre market.

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BMW Approves Conti Winter Run-Flats

Continental has secured another OE contract with BMW, this time supplying run-flat winter tyres to a number of vehicles produced by the German manufacturer. The supply deal covers the 1 and 3 series as well as the X5 SAV and the Z4 coupe and convertible.

To accommodate the different driving dynamics of the various vehicles, BMW has ordered two tyre models – the X5 will be fitted with the ContiCrossContact Winter in 18 and 19-inch sizes, whilst the other vehicles will be equipped with 16 and 17-inch fitments of the ContiWinterContact TS 810 Sport.

Conti reports that the company currently supplies 50 per cent of BMW’s OE tyre requirements.

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Goodway to Set Up Tyre & Retread JV in China

Malaysia’s stock exchange, the Bursa Malaysia, has released news that Goodway Integrated Industries has signed a joint venture agreement through its wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary Goodway Pte Limited with Hong Kong based World Bond Ltd, a company jointly owned by two residents of China, Lu Xiao Fei and Guan Huai Yun. The joint venture company, Newco, will engage in the manufacture and sale of tyres, “recycled rubber tyres” and precured tread liner.

Under the joint venture agreement, Newco will subscribe for 9,999 new ordinary shares of HK$10 (£0.64) nominal value in a newly incorporated Hong Kong company, which will then acquire two wholly-foreign owned entities (WFOEs) for HK$20 million (£1.27 million). The WFOEs will carry out the business of manufacturing and selling the above-mentioned products within the People’s Republic of China in accordance with the terms of the joint venture agreement.

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Tyre Retailers Encouraged to Support Tyre Safety Month

Plans are well advanced for the first ever UK-wide tyre safety campaign, being organised by TyreSafe, the industry’s leading tyre safety organisation. The campaign is already said to have gained support from “all major tyre companies and tyre retailers.” The campaign will kick off on the 1st October and will run through the whole of the month. The campaign will focus on the important part that tyres play in road safety, and one of the key messages of the month long initiative will be under inflation and how this can impact on safety, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Independent tyre retailers, garages and franchise dealers are being encouraged by TyreSafe to offer their customers free tyre safety and pressure checks. According to TyreSafe, almost 25 per cent of cars and vans on the roads in the UK have at least one badly worn or illegal tyre and tyre safety checks are an excellent way for retailers to encourage motorists to visit their premises. Many dealers are set to take advantage of the promotional material, featuring Channel 5 Fifth Gear motoring programme presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson, including posters and leaflets now available to download from the TyreSafe website at www.tyresafe.org.

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Feel Like Treading New Career Paths?

A unique opportunity has arisen for a computer literate salesperson to develop their career at Tyres & Accessories. T&A is seeking to appoint a creative and motivated individual to join the team and help maximise the development of our popular online products. An understanding of the various forms of online and print advertising will be seen as an advantage, but most importantly the right candidate will have a proven sales background. The position will be based at our UK offices in Stoke-on-Trent. Interested candidates should email theeditor@77.237.250.82 with details of their experience, qualifications and desired remuneration.

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