Superior Industries Posts $10.1M Q2 Profit
Aluminium Wheel Manufacturer Superior Industries International has announced a net income of US$10.1 million for the second quarter of 2010, a figure that includes a $4.1 million loss on the sale of the company’s joint venture in Hungary. This compares to a net loss in the second quarter of 2009 of $21.0 million.
Continue ReadingConti to Place High-Yield Bond
According to ‘confidential sources’, Continental AG is planning another high-yield bond placement for September. Reuters Deutschland reports the bond will be to the value of less than a billion euros, a scale comparable with the five-year bond the indebted company released in July. Company CFO Wolfgang Schäfer has previously stated that Continental plans to place bonds to a total volume of up to four billion euros.
Continue ReadingHankook Eyes Premier League Football Deal, Extends European Sponsorship
While Hankook discloses the medium term aim of widening its football sponsorship strategy to include England’s Premier League and Italy’s A Series, it is currently furthering its commitments through new deals in Germany and Spain. In addition to extending its relationship with six times German league champion Borussia Dortmund, in the 2010/2011 season the tyre maker will also display advertisements at the home stadiums of four federal league teams: Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg.
Continue ReadingSumitomo Sales Surpass £2 Billion in H1, 2010
Half year results for Sumitomo Rubber Industries show net sales increasing 22.2 per cent to 280,797 million yen (£2.1 billion). During this six month period to June 30, 2010 operating income amounted to 20,342 million yen (£151.4 million), representing a margin of 7.2 per cent. Net income was 10,438 million yen (£78.1 million) as opposed to a 6,892 million yen a year earlier and represented a margin of 3.7 per cent.
Continue ReadingRuia Group Substitute Candidate for Ssangyong Takeover
The bid for struggling South Korean 4x4 specialist Ssangyong submitted by Indian commercial vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has been given the green light. Should an arrangement between Mahindra and Ssangyong’s creditors fail to be finalised, however, the Ruia Group – parent company of Dunlop India and Falcon Tyres – is reportedly next in line. A total of six parties, including Renault-Nissan, expressed interest in acquiring the debt laden Ssangyong, the smallest of South Korea’s five car makers.
Continue ReadingSuperior Delays Q2 Figures Release
Superior Industries International states that the release of its second quarter 2010 financial results, scheduled to be made public on August 11, has been postponed due, in part, to the recent implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The aluminium wheel manufacturer says it is “working diligently” to finalise its second quarter results and will provide new dates and times for the earnings release and earnings conference call at a later date.
Continue ReadingCooper Marks Half Century Producing Tyres for Hercules
In 2010 Hercules Tire & Rubber and Cooper Tire & Rubber celebrate 50 years of tyre business partnership. Cooper manufactures the Hercules brand of replacement market tyres, and claims to have produced millions of passenger car, SUV and light truck tyres for Hercules over the years.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Offers $900 Million in Senior Notes
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announced it has commenced a public offering of US$900 million aggregate principal amount of 10-year senior notes. The offering was increased from a previously announced offering size of $750 million.
Continue ReadingLatin America, Asia Synthetic Rubber Demand Behind Lanxess Q2 Earnings Growth
Upon releasing chemical manufacturer Lanxess AG’s financial results for the second quarter of 2010, the company’s Board of Management chairman Axel Heitmann commented on the ten best-selling Lanxess products: “This list features eight rubber products from the Butyl Rubber and Performance Butadiene Rubbers business units for the manufacture of tyres,” he stated.
Continue ReadingVMI Yantai Receives ISO9001:2008 Certification
On June 23rd 2010, VMI Yantai achieved ISO9001:2008 certification from Lloyd Register Company. This successful certification of the company’s Chinese operation, says the VMI Group, was accomplished in close cooperation between VMI Yantai and the company’s Netherlands based organisation. “The ISO9001:2008 certificate demonstrates the high quality level of the VMI products that are being produced by VMI in Yantai as well as in the Netherlands,” announced a company statement.
Continue ReadingE-Commerce Growth Drives Delticom Revenues in H1, 2010
In reporting its financial results for the first half of the 2010 financial year, Germany’s Delticom AG – the company behind mytyres.co.uk – observed a marked difference between the performance of its main e-commerce business and its comparatively small-scale wholesale operation. Delticom notes the continuation of the global economic recovery during the first and an improvement in conditions in most European countries, yet has also seen that within the “strong rebound” in its home market Germany domestic demand has lagged behind the improving consumer sentiment. Therefore, while the internet is “steadily gaining significance as a sales channel”, Delticom states that the late-cycle retail sector as a whole “has not yet been able to benefit from the upturn to the same extent as other sectors of the economy.”
Continue ReadingAnalysts: Nokian Tyre 2Q Net Income 80% Ahead of Expectations
Following Nokian Tyres’s reporting of second quarter revenues of 260 million euros (13 per cent higher than consensus, up 36 per cent year-on-year), financial analysts have praised the Finnish tyremaker for beating net income predictions by up to 80 per cent and an overall “good quarter.” Searching the detail of the company’s second quarter presentation also reveals that, due to raw material price increases, the market can expect tyre price increases of 2 - 6 per cent during the summer and autumn of 2010. Other key company targets for the second half of the year include: to increase sales in all areas especially Russia, increase market share in core markets, and to “utilize the most feasible capacities.”
Continue ReadingDespite Challenges, Bridgestone Rides Recovery in H1 2010
For Bridgestone, the first half of the 2010 financial year presented an operating environment “plagued by rising prices for raw materials.” Yet, despite these challenges, the Japanese tyre maker saw signs of a slight recovery in its domestic market plus a gradual recovery in the US and accelerated recovery in Asia and particularly in China. Bridgestone acknowledges that conditions in Europe remain “challenging”, but notes that the business climate there showed signs of bottoming out. In these operating conditions, Bridgestone states that during the six months to June 30, 2010 it stepped up efforts to improve manufacturing productivity, increase sales of highly competitive products, strengthen supply capacity and effectively utilise its management resources.
Continue ReadingGermany’s Gumasol Becomes Ruia Group Subsidiary
On August 1 the German tyre component manufacturer Gumasol-Werke Dr. Mayer GmbH & Co. KG became a subsidiary of India’s Ruia Group. The firm will continue operation at its site in the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Germersheim under the name Gumasol Rubber-Tec GmbH and all 110 jobs at the plant have been retained. Gumasol describes its acquisition by the Ruia Group as “a new chapter” for a company “rich in tradition”, and comments that the incorporation of a previously medium-sized firm into an international enterprise “offers very good perspectives for Gumasol-Werke.”
Continue ReadingSales, Profits up at Toyo in Q1, 2010
During the first quarter of the 2010 financial year, Toyo Rubber received net sales of 72,162 million yen (£528.2 million), a 15.7 per cent increase on the same period last year. This increase in sales was matched by a 13 per cent increase in global tyre sales by volume, with a total of 43,700 tonnes of tyres produced in the three months to June 30, 2010. The bulk of this, 37,500 tonnes, was destined for the Japanese market. Operating income for the quarter was 2,612 million yen (£19.1 million), compared with an operating loss of 3,054 million yen a year earlier, and net income amounted to 743 million yen (£5.4 million) compared with a net loss of 2,620 million yen in the same period of 2009.
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