Yokohama tyre plant for Rayong (update)
Yokohama Rubber Co aims to open a new plant in Thailand, planning to roll out tyres in April 2005. It plans to set up a company there in January to make radial tyres for trucks and buses. The company plans to spend 5.5 billion yen to build a plant in Rayong that will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 tyres in its initial phase. In the second phase annual production is scheduled to double to 600,000. Its main product will be 22.5-inch tyres, and they will be exported to markets around the world. Yokohama Rubber plans to acquire a site of up to 225,000 square metres in Rayongs Amata City industrial park for the new plant. The plant will employ a small-batch production system, which is designed to maximises cost efficiency even on a relatively small production scale, Yokohama Rubber said. The company adds that it may build more tyre plants in Thailand in the future.
Continue ReadingManufacturers in motorsport
Motorsport is a key tool in marketing tyres and has been since the first tyres were produced. Harvey Firestone used to say Race them on Sunday, sell them on Monday. That holds as true today as it did back then. However, the market is much more complex now with a wider variety of motorsports and a wider variety of manufacturers. Not only that but the technology of the vehicles and the tyres has developed at a pace that has created specialist divisions in manufacture solely to deal with developing motorsport tyres. T&A looks at the leading players in the market in the UK and uncovers the thinking behind their involvement in motorsport, why they do it, how they do it and indeed what they hope to gain from motorsport in the long run. From a simple publicity advantage for some, through to a full blown engineering partnership with vehicle manufacturers for others.
Continue ReadingMichelin Signs 8-Year Partnership Agreement With IBM
Michelin and IBM have announced that they have signed a partnership agreement valued at 1 billion euros. According to this 8-year agreement, IBM will take over the management and maintenance of Michelins IT infrastructure in North America and Europe. This commitment includes a focus on achieving optimal financial results through the application of best practices in terms of technology adoption and utilisation as well as access to the best skills available in the domain of information technology. Around 600 current Michelin employees will join IBM in 2004. Under the terms of this agreement, IBM will be responsible for the following Michelin IT infrastructure activities: IT production operations and management, user support, technical support, solution industrialisation and distribution of servers, workstations, PCs, software and production applications.
Continue ReadingREG UK Tyre & Automotive Recycling: Leave it to us
REG UK Tyre & Automotive Recycling is a subsidiary of Continental Tyres and the company name adequately explains the companys mission. In todays tyre industry, the recycling of scrap tyres is a subject that has grown in importance over recent years and one which has exercised every sector of the industry. REG UK came into existence in 1997, with Contis John Campbell named as managing director – indeed, at that time, he was the sole employee. The concept, says John Campbell, came from the then-CEO of Continental AG, Dr. Hubertus von Grünberg. Von Grünberg recognised that Continental spent considerable sums on functions such as R&D and marketing and he believed that the company should complete the circle by offering dealers a route to dispose of their scrap tyres. The idea was tried out first in Germany, with the establishment of REG Deutschland in 1992, with REG UK following five years later. Today, REG recycles around 40,000 tonnes of tyres annually and large volumes of tyres are being consumed in UK cement kilns, with REG being one of a number of suppliers into the cement industry (the exclusive arrangement with Blue Circle ceased at the end of the 90s). In hindsight, according to John Campbell, “This situation gave REG an opportunity to be more pro-active in its marketing and in looking for new and innovative recycling solutions. Not only does REG look round for recycling solutions, but it looks too for recycling opportunities. The companys remit is not confined to any particular product area – if there is waste to be disposed of, then REG will look to see if it can become commercially involved. While the problem of tyre recycling, reprocessing and disposal is one that affects all manufacturers, there are few who have embraced it to the extent of Continental with the setting up of REG and any that wanted to move in on this market would find themselves playing catch-up. REG is already established and is profitable; living proof of the old adage that where theres muck, theres brass.
Continue ReadingAndreas Niegsch: “Our brands are our greatest asset”
It has been an eventful – some might say traumatic – year or two for the Goodyear Corporation as it struggled to integrate Dunlop within its organisation across Europe and the USA. One of the countries that has seen a great deal of change is the UK, where a number of different methods of restructuring have been tried, with varying levels of success. Recent changes affected the management at the highest level – Goodyear and Dunlop had their own MDs, reporting to Marco Molinari, who was in overall control. When Molinari left the company, it was decided to change the management structure and responsibilities. Out went the two separate MD posts and a General Manager was brought in. That person was Andreas Niegsch, a 39-year-old German who only joined Dunlop in 1998. One year on, the structure is in place and beginning to produce results and Andreas Niegsch found the time to give his first press interview, with T&A. Where Andreas Niegschs position differs from that of his predecessors is that he is responsible purely for the sales organisation at Goodyear Dunlop and the UK factories report to Goodyear Dunlop Europe. By not being responsible for manufacturing, Andreas Niegsch is free to concentrate on sales and in getting closer to the market and the customer. The new structure has separate sales divisions for consumer, commercial, farm, earthmover, motorcycle and motorsports tyres and these are supported by functions such as HR, logistics and finance. Retail is treated as a separate profit centre and a new marketing department has been created to support all the product groups. Given enough time, things will turn around, said Andreas Niegsch, as the company has the funds and has bought itself the time to implement the necessary changes. However, whatever else changes, he believes that Goodyear Dunlop still has those two priceless assets; two brands that are worth their weight in gold.
Continue ReadingBridgestone to phase out bias truck tires in North America
As Modern Tire Dealer reports, in response to reduced demand Bridgestone is to stop supplying bias medium truck and bus tyres to the United States and Canada by the end of 2006.
Continue ReadingKanwar’s ATL stake down by 6.54 per cent
The shareholding of Apollo Tyres Limited (ATL) promoter Onkar S. Kanwar will come down by 6.54 per cent to 37.33 per cent after preferential allotment of 14.90 per cent of the companys existing shares to French tyre manufacturer Michelin Group. After the proposed allotment of shares to Michelin, the stake of promoters and business associates in the company would come down to 37.33 per cent from existing 43.87 per cent, an ATL official said. ATL had announced in November to allot 14.90 per stake in the company to worlds largest tyre maker, Michelin, to enter into a technical alliance for manufacture of passenger car radial tyres by ATL and also set up a 51:49 joint venture with it for manufacturing and marketing truck and bus radial tyres.
Continue ReadingIndian Tyre industry missing opportunity
Indias outsourcing boom is likely to have little impact on the tyre industry that has huge potential. The tyre industry needs to source rubber at global prices. Availability of rubber at par with international majors like Continental, Pirelli or Yokohama would lead to development of India as a base for manufacturing, according to Anil Sampat, an industry analyst and former rubber industry insider. Indias largest player MRF is still one fifth in size of global companies. The only way the Indian tyre industry can grow and reach global scale is to attract investments from international tyre majors as the industry is capital intensive. The small size of Indian companies is a source of worry, says Sampat. With tyre industry expected to grow only by 2 per cent, real growth can come only when India offers world class manufacturing facilities for global players, he points out.
Continue ReadingTyre stocks skyrocket in India
The stocks prices of tyre companies have gone skyrocketed in the last few months following the auto boom. Share prices of tyre manufacturer Apollo Tyres increased from Rs 193.00 to Rs 259.85, Ceat appreciated from Rs 44.85 to Rs 63.85 and JK Industries moved up from Rs 38.90 to Rs 86.20. Vikrant Tyre gained from Rs 18.05 to Rs 75.30, Falcon Tyres increased from Rs 23.80 to Rs 26.75 and Goodyear Industries appreciated from Rs 33.70 to Rs 50.30. Govind Rubber gained from Rs 8.49 to Rs 16.32, MRF jumped from Rs 1418.45 to Rs 2097.35, while Premier Tyre increased from Rs 9.15 to Rs 12.38 and Krypton Industries appreciated from Rs 11.21 to Rs 18.00. Making local tyres available at fair prices would emerge as the key factor to Indian rubber goods manufactures taking advantage of the auto boom.
Continue ReadingDaytona stumping Dunlop?
Reports from the annual tyre tests at Daytona Superbike trials have been called off due to a series of tyre failures. Dunlop is working frenetically to overcome the difficulties but leading racers are not blaming Dunlop for the failures but rather the condition of the banked Daytona circuit and the power of the Superbikes. Tyre wear is not the issue or the reason why for the failures. Said team manager Matt Mladin. The problem Dunlop is facing is that they just dont know why its happening. The bottom line is that the speeds and the forces generated on the banking, I dont think can be replicated in a closed testing environment and that makes it hard. The banking does have what feels like very sharp holes, what would feel like stutter bumps on a motocross bike, but at 270kph, so is this additional load causing the tyre to fracture. Thats the thing at the moment, we just dont know.
Continue ReadingMore accounting troubles at Goodyear
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has revealed that its accounting troubles are ongoing. Goodyear said after the close of regular stock trading that an internal investigation has identified possible improper accounting issues in Europe. The company said an amended filing it expected to submit to the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing its finances will be delayed until next year so that it can complete a review of its accounting. The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) announced today it will closely monitor the circumstances surrounding Goodyear Tire and Rubber Companys announcement that it will be necessary to delay the filing of its 2002 Form 10-K/A with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We are hopeful that the problems in Europe are not significant, stated USWA International vice president Andrew V. Palm. We expect that the company will quickly resolve this situation and move on to complete their financing commitments in the near future.
Continue ReadingIndian government changes DEPB rules
TYRE exporters in India may have cause for cheer now that the Central Government has allowed fixation of value caps for availing duty entitlement passbook (DEPB) on a per kilogram basis. This is as against the present system, where the Director-General of Foreign Trade fixes uniform value caps for each category. Thus, exporters of truck and bus tyres were eligible to claim 20 per cent DEPB on free-on-board value or the specified value cap of Rs 5,500 per pair (tyre plus tube), whichever was lower. To overcome the classification problems, the Government now fixed the value caps on a weight basis at Rs 90 per kg for all automobile tyres. There has, however, been no change to the DEPB rate, which has been pegged at 20 per cent.
Continue ReadingSEMA Show 2003 in Las Vegas
Approximately 90,000 visitors were expected to the 37th SEMA exhibition in Las Vegas according to organiser Specialty Equipment Market Association, without exception specialised public. The annual fair, that usually takes place in November, is comparable with the German Automechanika. For the past decade the tyre sector has been a very important part of the Show. All the tyre manufacturers with interest in the American tyre market are present in Las Vegas. Visitors however shouldn’t expect the presentation of groundbreaking new products. On the contrary: Las Vegas is a suitable place, at which business relations between customers and suppliers can be established or deepened. Despite all the economic difficulties the world’s gambling capital, in the desert of Nevada, is booming. And “9/11” seems to have passed this city without trace, a city which still builds one fancy hotel next to another. The Hilton hotel in Las Vegas it is adjacent to the fairground, once the largest hotel in the world with approximately 3,500 rooms, is nowadays less significant. Others have 4,000, 5,000 or even more rooms. Reportedly a hotel with 8,000 rooms is to be built shortly. At present the city waits for the opening of another luxury hotel, which is to dominate not only by size, but also by luxury. The opening is due in two years. To be on the safe side, the planned French name for the hotel was axed, because it is feared that too many patriotic Americans would avoid such a hotel, after the Gauls dared not to take part in the Iraqi war. The tyre exhibition in Las Vegas is surely still a meeting of trade specialists. One enters the halls, looks to the left and to the right into the vast array of different exhibition booths. Nevertheless, any visitor has toured every booth within a short time. Although tyre manufacturers such as Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin, Cooper, Pirelli, Hankook, Kumho, Yokohama and others are present, the important decisions are not taken at the show. The pricipal discussions take place in the hotels. There the life pulsates. There the receptions take place. There, tyre dealers are invited to meet with their suppliers to specify commercial objectives for the coming year. The large tyre manufacturers not only offer product, but also various kinds of marketing and sales promotion programs. It is the tyre manufacturers aim to bring partners into line in order to improve their new tyre business by at least 50 per cent.
Continue ReadingCeat to increase Pirelli imports
Indian company Ceat is poised to treble imports of Pirelli radials to 15,000 tyres a month. Ceat claims a six per cent share of the radial tyre sector and is aiming to increase this to 10 per cent in the near future.
Continue ReadingHyundai to hike prices
Hyundai has announced that it will raise prices of its vehicles by around three per cent, starting next month. The company says that the increase is necessary, as rising prices of steel and tyres have put pressure on production costs.
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