Goodyear OE on new Mercedes-Benz E-Class
The new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 has been accredited with OE fitments on the Mercedes- Benz E-Class. The Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 will be fitted in a range of sizes from 17 to 20 inch rims, section width ranging from 225 to 275, and aspect ratio spanning from 30 to 55. All tyres will be marked ‘MO Extended’ indicating tyres built by Goodyear for Mercedes-Benz as well as providing Goodyear’s Run on Flat technology in all fitments.
Continue ReadingManufacture locally and eliminate transport costs
Numerous tyre makers have or are in the process of setting up factories within regions where they aim to sell their products. Decentralising their manufacturing footprint reduces the time and cost involved in delivering tyres to retailers and end users. A new breakthrough from a British company promises to advance this approach a step further.
Continue ReadingPirelli to sell truck tyres in the North America
Pirelli has begun plans to sell truck and bus tyres in the United States and Canada through a new entity, TP Commercial Solutions LLC. The move represents an expansion into North America of Pirelli’s industrial business unit, currently headed at the group level by Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera.It also follows plans to separate Pirelli’s car and truck tyre businesses, which was initiated in practice by a stock market filing published on 21 March in China. This filing saw China National Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. (ChemChina’s tyre division known as CNRC) announce it had signed a “material asset reorganisation framework agreement” with Aeolus Tyre Co., Ltd including the creation of a China-based Pirelli TBR company.
Continue ReadingBetter together: Regional NTDA meetings show national strength
At the end of February Tyres & Accessories attended the NTDA’s North West region meeting. For years the National Tyre Distributors Association kept in touch with the grass roots of the industry via a regional structure. This dissipated and virtually evaporated in recent decades, but not in the North West where it has continued to be strong – representing the local needs of the association and working together for the common good of tyre distributors as part of the national NTDA organisation. Latterly, the NTDA has experienced something of a resurgence of the regional approach with other regions being re-invigorated (prior to the North West meeting, the South East and Central South regions met in Watford on 10 February).
Continue ReadingNokian Tyres’ boss: How could we “have been so stupid”? – Ari Lehtoranta talks tyre test manipulation
“I didn’t have any choice.” – Ari Lehtoranta, president and CEO of Nokian Tyres, is convinced his decision to go public about the Finnish manufacturer’s manipulation of tyre tests in Europe over decades was the right decision. Lehtoranta, who has led the company since October 2014, wonders why Nokian Tyres went to the effort of supplying specially-made test tyres – particularly as the company’s non-manipulated products have always gained good results in tyre tests. In an interview with Tyres & Accessories, Lehtoranta explains why it is now important to take part in the current public discussions on the subject and, through these talks, develop new industry-wide transparency rules.
Continue ReadingATS Euromaster expands pilot truck services programme
ATS Euromaster has expanded its pilot truck services programme. The network is seeking to expand its service, maintenance and repair business with large commercial vehicle fleets. Phase one of the programme, launched in April 2015, marked the first time ATS Euromaster had expanded its range of services beyond tyres and wheels for commercial vehicles above seven tonnes gvw. Now a further 10 locations can provide SMR support to truck operators. They stretch from Glasgow to Exeter to cover key locations along some of Britain’s most significant transport routes, including the M1, M4, M5, M6, Felixstowe, and Tilbury.
Continue ReadingSumitomo investing to produce truck tyres in South Africa
Just over two years ago, Sumitomo Rubber Industries acquired Apollo Tyres South Africa, and with it the operation’s car tyre factory in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal. While the plant supplies the local market with passenger car and light truck tyres, Sumitomo Rubber South Africa has to-date met local demand for truck and bus tyres with imported products. This will soon change; the company has announced it will invest 910 million rand (£41.3 million) to install new production equipment within the Ladysmith facility, and it aims to produce truck and bus tyres there from July 2018.
Continue ReadingApollo appoints ex-Goodyear OE specialist as senior vice president for North America
Apollo Tyres has appointed Steven Smidlein as the senior vice president for North America. This new role will be based in the firm’s New Jersey office and will see Smidlein reporting to Neeraj Kanwar, vice chairman and managing director, Apollo Tyres Ltd. An OE specialist, with previous experience at Goodyear, Steven Smidlein has spent most of his career working in various executive roles for car makers such as Chrysler, Honda and Accura in the US. According to the Apollo, Smidlein’s latest role sees him take responsibility for ”building the brand and sales in North America for both, Apollo and Vredestein”.
Continue ReadingRemanufacturing business ‘booming’ for Brake Engineering
Brake Engineering has reported an increased demand in remanufacturing, as the braking brand continues to gain success with its Original Aftermarket campaign. While remanufactured brake calipers experience higher demand at this time of year, Brake Engineering is reporting an even greater upsurge in demand for calipers than in previous years.
Continue ReadingYokohama website goes multilingual
Nine new language options have been added to Yokohama Rubber’s corporate website. In addition to being available in English and Japanese, the site now includes information in Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Thai, Korean, Russian, Indonesian, and German. Users can access corporate information in their language of choice by selecting at the www.y-yokohama.com/global/ start page.
Continue ReadingYokohama Rubber acquiring Alliance Tire Group
On 25 March, the Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. announced it has reached an agreement with global investment firm KKR and three other parties to purchase all shares in Alliance Tire Group (ATG) for an agreed equity value of US$1,179 million. The transaction is expected to be finalised on 1 July 2016, after the completion of all necessary closing procedures, including regulatory approvals.
Continue ReadingKlarius to invest £1.5million from 2016
The UK’s largest manufacturer of exhausts, CATs and DPFs for the aftermarket has announced £1.5m of project investment to begin in 2016. Klarius Products states that it has allocated the money to production capacity increases, quality improvements, and lead time reduction on new parts.
Continue ReadingGoodyear converting Luxembourg wire plant land into Automotive Campus
Goodyear, together with the Luxembourg government and IEE, have announced plans to develop a new Automotive Campus dedicated to innovation. The Luxembourg Automotive Campus research and development area is intended to provide state of the art facilities to companies involved in technological innovation for the automotive sector. The tyre manufacturer also announced that part of its partnership with the Automotive Campus project means moving all its local non-manufacturing personnel onto the new site.
Continue ReadingArlanxeo – synthetic rubber JV’s Executive Board named
The Executive Board for the new Arlanxeo synthetic rubber joint venture has been announced, with parent companies Lanxess and Saudi Aramco gaining equal representation on the four-person Board.
Continue ReadingUK car manufacturing still booming, up 13% in February
British car manufacturing figures for February 2016 show that car manufacturing is still booming. According to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), output rose 13.1 per cent compared with February 2015. Reflecting the growing popularity of UK-built cars both at home and abroad, February’s performance puts production for the year-to-date up 10.6 per cent over the same period last year. Output for the domestic market rose 24.4 per cent in the month, accompanied by a 9.1 per cent increase in export production.
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