Hankook Australia opens new warehouse, sponsors night football
Hankook Tyre Australia says the relocation of its New South Wales warehouse will improve distribution to dealers in that state. YCH Logistics, located at Sydney's Eastern Creek, will be the new central depot for Hankook tyres in the state; the facility replaces the warehouse currently located at TOLL Logistics in Yennora. The Yennora warehouse will continue to operate until the end of March.
Continue ReadingEco tyres a Lanxess primary focus, says CEO
In a guest editorial for Reuters, Lanxess CEO Axel Heitmann has described low rolling resistance tyres as being a primary focus for the specialty chemicals company. “As the fastest growing sector in the tyre industry, “green tyres” have enormous growth potential and increase globally by around ten per cent per year. In Asia demand is currently increasing by as much as 14 per cent annually,” he stated. “Our position is therefore clear: Lanxess will continue to build on its leading position and expand its production capacities, particularly in Asia.” Heitmann expanded upon the Asian theme by sharing that Lanxess will produce 140,000 tonnes of Nd-PBR-rubber per annum at a new site in Singapore by 2015.
Continue ReadingBridgestone addressing mining, construction sector demand with Thai OTR plant
Global demand OTR radials for use in construction and mining applications is growing, and to meet the needs of a hungry market, Bridgestone intends to build a new production facility in Thailand. On 5 March the Japanese tyre maker announced plans to invest around 50 billion yen (£385.6 million) setting up the tyre plant in Rayong, and production there is expected to begin in the first half of 2015. Production capacity at the new plant is expected to reach approximately 85 tons per day by the 1st half of 2019, when scheduled capacity increases are completed. In addition, Bridgestone will also erect a steel cord manufacturing facility through its cord manufacturing subsidiary.
Continue ReadingToyo Canada price rise announced
Escalating raw material costs are behind Toyo Tire Canada’s decision to increase prices for winter passenger car and light truck tyres by up to 3.5 per cent. The new pricing will take effect 1 April 2012.
Continue ReadingMagna Tyres becomes preferred supplier to Terex Cranes
Dutch tyre firm Magna Tyres has announced that it is now an official preferred supplier to Terex Cranes. Such is the scope of the deal, all cranes produced by Terex at its Zweibücken, Germany and Montceau les Mines, France production lines are equipped with Magna Tyres as standard. The deal may only have been announced now, but the cooperation between the two companies has been going for a few years already. Nevertheless the formal long term agreement was signed in January 2012.
Continue ReadingVeteran fleet fitter rewarded after 30 years’ service
A fleet fitter from Stamford has been recognised for his 30 years of dedicated service. Kingsway Tyres Stamford presented its long time employee, Dennis Fisher with a special achievement award and gifts during its yearly company conference. Fisher said: “I’m so pleased with the recognition I’ve had for the service I’ve given over the years. It’s wonderful to see what an impact your work has had on other people in the business and how much they appreciate what you’ve done for them.”
Continue ReadingHembery explains Pirelli’s unmarked F1 tyres
The internet was rife with theories about why some of Pirelli’s Formula One tyres at the Circuit de Catalunya appeared without the usual colour-coded sidewall markings. The favourite was that at the final test before the first Grand Prix in Australia teams would be keen to keep their testing programmes and therefore potential tyre strategies from other teams. The real reason was much less clandestine – Pirelli’s Motorsport manager, Paul Hembery explained to French magazine, Auto Plus that the tyres had been manufactured at a site other than its usual F1 manufacturing plant in Izmit. The tyres were provided as prototypes to test Pirelli’s ability to provide current F1 rubber if Turkey’s output was compromised by natural disaster.
Continue ReadingPractical Performance Car recommends Varta
The January 2012 issue of Practical Performance Car magazine ranks Varta in first place in the publication’s car battery product test. The company’s Silver Dynamic product topped the test and the Blue Dynamic battery was “recommended” in joint second place. This follows the “Best Buy” Award from Car Mechanics magazine in 2011 for the Silver Dynamic battery.
Continue ReadingBekaert to cooperate with Techking on ‘concept tyres’
On 19 January a delegation from Bekaert’s Shanghai, China office visited Techking. According to the company, during the meeting, Techking and Bekaert shared their respective views on thee future development trends relating to the tyre industry. Through technical communications relating to OTR, TBR and PCR lines, both parties agreed to develop steel cord with special specifications for Techking ‘concept’ tyre products.
Continue ReadingLink Tyre adopts Cam’s UniSerV
Link Tyre Sales Ltd, based in Dewsbury, is introducing UniSerV from Cam Systems to its business. The company signed up for the system after witnessing the extensive benefits of the UniSerV platform in call logging, customer policy and contract management, integrated Casing Management and improved breakdown form processing at the UniSerV roadshow hosted by Cam Systems in October 2011.
Continue ReadingContinental to take over ContiTread sales in April
As of April 2012, Continental and Marangoni Group will hand over the promotion and sales of ContiTread pre-cure treads to Continental Tyre Group Ltd in the UK and Ireland. Commenting on this move, commercial marketing manager Tracey Hyem said “the addition of ContiTread to our core sales offering, further underlines Continental's commitment to the ContiLifeCycle concept. Customers will now have one contact for all elements of ContiLifeCycle, and can rely on comprehensive advice to help reduce costs through better fuel consumption and longer tyre life.”
Continue ReadingNokian bags German tyre test wins
Nokian claims a pair of tyre test victories for its summer products; the Nokian Z G2 scored a win in the German Volkswagen and Audi specialist magazine “Gute Fahrt”, while the Nokian H took top honours in the “Auto Zeitung”, which is also published in Germany.
Continue ReadingAnalysts: Conti profits beat projections
Continental’s fourth quarter adjusted pre-tax profits of 815 million euros (announced yesterday, 1 March) was 5 per cent ahead of the consensus of projections compiled by various financial analysts. At the same time the company’s fourth quarter sales of 7.7 billion were some 2 per cent higher. According to an investor’s note published by Morgan Stanley following the publication of the Continental’s financials, the company’ s margin of 10.3 per cent also came higher than consensus estimates at 10 per cent.
Continue ReadingSailun adds 15 sizes to winter tyre range
Sailun has expanded its winter tyre size range, adding 15 more fitments in total for the studdable Ice Blazer WST1 winter tyre and the studless Ice Blazer WSL2 winter tyre. According to the company, new sizes are available across both patterns and cover the 15, 16, 17 and 18-inch options and will be released from production in April and May 2012.
Continue ReadingWinter testing at new Bridgestone proving ground
With the increasing use of cold weather tyres across many European markets as a result of legislation, recent harsh winters, and increased product awareness, the development cycle for new models has reduced in length. The world’s biggest manufacturer, Bridgestone has responded to the increased interest in the segment – and the resultant quickening of technological improvements – by signing a long-term lease on its new Sweden Proving Ground (SPG), located in Vidsel in the north of the country under 100km from the polar circle, and an hour’s drive north of Lulea airport. Its representatives told tyrepress.com that the estimated new seasonal product cycle would now be “no more than two winters”, since the “life cycle of a winter tyre is getting shorter”.
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