Start Of Tyre Production At Bridgestone Poland
Bridgestone has launched the production of passenger car and light truck tyres in Poland. Right now the factory has a capacity of about two million tyres for passenger cars but in 2001 Bridgestone plans to manufacture three million high performance tyres.
Continue ReadingBBS Re-purchase Italian Factory
BBS has bought back the 50 per cent share in a light alloy wheel factory in Ruina (Ferrara), from it former partner in the joint venture, Riva Calzoni.
Continue ReadingDegussa-Hüls Invests Euro 80 Million
To boost market position Degussa-Hüls wants to invest Euro 80 million to expand the production of precipitated silicas at its factory in Wesseling/Germany. Silicas, along with rubber silanes and rubber carbon black, are important components in reducing the rolling resistance of tyres.
Continue ReadingScrap Tyre Open Forum
Around forty people from all sectors of the tyre industry, the waste collection industry and the trade press met in an open forum meeting to discuss the different aspects of the scrap tyre situation and to examine market trends. Among the topics on the agenda were retreading, recycling and re-use. Retreading in the UK (especially car tyre retreading) is going through what is probably its worst-ever period for sales. The situation at the forum was described as an environmental disaster by one delegate. Recycling suffers from a lack of investment; backers are scared off by the instability of prices in the scrap tyre collection market, at least at local level. Re-use brought up the subject of part-worn tyres, the UK market for which is estimated at around three million units. The futures for landfill engineering and energy recovery were also discussed at length. It was not only the various disposal methods that were under discussion – there were complaints about whether the playing field was as level as it should be and the Environment Agency was criticised by some for the length of time it took to evaluate test results. Possible future statutory control measures were discussed, particularly the fear that these might be imposed on the industry as a whole, or on one sector. Unless the industry can come up with an effective voluntary scheme, this was regarded as inevitable. More about this in TYRES & ACCESSORIES’s March issue.
Continue ReadingPhoenix Ambitious
Former tyre producer Phoenix (Germany) wants to double sales by 2005 (1999: EURO 859.7 million). Core businesses (now accounting for 86% of turnover) are car vibrations and acoustics, conveyors and hose systems.
Continue ReadingContinental Denies Shareholding in Apollo Tyres
Continental has denied reports in Indian newspapers that it has a 15% shareholding in Apollo Tyres. Continental is in talks with other companies in India but the results will not be announced until later this year.
Continue ReadingGood News At Last For UK Car Industry
After the recent run of bad news in the UK car industry, there was good news when Vauxhall announced it was to invest £189 m in its British manufacturing operation, creating an estimated 500 jobs.
Continue ReadingContinental Wants To Buy Back Shares
The German newspaper Handelsblatt says in todays issue that Continental is planning to buy back its own shares. This will be confirmed at the general meeting taking place on May 19th. The Supervisory Board proposes the usual limit of 10 p.c. of the original capital and a time limit up until the end of October 2001. With this move Continental wants to keep the option open to make acquisitions by exchanging shares.
Continue ReadingMichelin’s F1 Tyre Development Continues
Tom Kristensen, in a BMW-engined Williams FW21B, tested the latest version of Michelin F1 tyres in Miramas. The Dane was very impressed with the standard of the Michelin program and the technical progress the engineers achieved between the two 4-day sessions.
Continue ReadingGlobal Players – An In-Depth Analysis
More and more nowadays, we hear that the tyre industry is becoming increasingly global and ever-more companies describe themselves as a global player. But what exactly makes a company a true global player? An in-depth article in TYRES & ACCESSORIES 6/2000 looks at the criteria by which a so-called ‘global player’ should be judged and concludes that the only three companies that merit this term are Bridgestone, Goodyear and Michelin. The article examines in detail each company’s performance in the world’s most important markets, their market shares and turnover figures, their strengths and weaknesses and their prospects for the future. The article goes on to examine the home markets of the global players (USA, Europe and Asia) and discusses the performances of the lesser players and what is likely to happen to them. Todays global tyre market is one of acquisitions and alliances, mergers and new technological advances. Competition is intense and, in terms of market share, none of the big three seems able to leave its rivals standing, neither is the gap between the big three and the second three growing. Having said that, none of the second three stands a realistic chance of becoming a true global player in the future. The article gives a detailed, objective assessment of today’s tyre industry, together with some speculation concerning what might happen in the future.
Continue ReadingNew Industry Quality Standard Set By Goodyear’s OTR Retread Plant
Goodyears retread plant in North Bay (Ontario, Canada) is believed to be North America’s first Off-The-Road (OTR) tyre retreading facility to become ISO 9002 registered. The North Bay facility is Canada’s largest OTR retread operation.
Continue ReadingHonda Cuts UK Components
Honda is to reduce the numbers of components sourced in the UK. The ultimate aim is to have a 50/50 split between UK and mainland European-produced components (the current ratio is 75/25). Suppliers have also been asked to be more competitive. Currency fluctuations and the weak Euro were blamed for the move.
Continue ReadingLosses For Vredestein Group
After good a result for 1999, Vredestein NV has reported losses for the first half year in spite of satisfying results in the tyre business sector. The main reason for the bad figures was given as the consequences of an acquisition by subsidiary company Hevea, a producer of boots.
Continue ReadingEarnings Of Hayes Lemmerz Impacted By US Truck Production
Hayes Lemmerz International has announced results for the first six months of 2000. Sales were $1,138 million ($1,132), diluted earnings per share were $ 0.73 ($ 0.93). Business was impacted primarily by the drop in heavy truck production in the United States, coupled with the devaluation of the Euro against the Dollar.
Continue ReadingTyre Recall No Problem For Firestone In Europe
From 1991 up to the present, only about 16,000 tyres of the size in question have been sold in Europe. Most of these are no longer in use.
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