Japanese Car Production Falls
For the first time in 21 years, car production of the eleven Japanese manufacturers 1999/2000 (March 31) fell below ten million due to the weakness of exports.
Continue ReadingISO 14001 Accreditation For Hayes Lemmerz
The worlds leading wheel producer Hayes Lemmerz has been awarded environmental certification ISO 14001 for its Czech facility Autokola (Ostrava).
Continue ReadingCar Tyre Production To Cease At Fort Dunlop
Earlier in the year we reported that truck tyre production was to stop at the Fort Dunlop factory in Birmingham, UK. There was another devastating blow for the ageing plant when it was announced that car and van tyre production will be phased out by the end of the year. This will lead to 600 job losses, on top of the 650 redundancies earlier in the year. When all the losses have been implemented, the workforce at Fort Dunlop will have fallen from 1,700 to 500 inside twelve months. The latest move is as a result of Goodyear’s review of operations, following the joint venture with Sumitomo and has been blamed on over-production, the strength of Sterling and a reduction in domestic car production. Dunlop brand car and van tyres will continue to be manufactured at the company’s more modern factory in Washington in the North East of England as well as other European factories in the Goodyear group. Production at Washington will increase from six days a week to seven. Around 12,600 car tyres are manufactured daily at the plant. With truck, car and van tyre production gone from the Fort, that only leaves motorsports tyres, of which a mere 250,000 are made a year. The article in TYRES & ACCESSORIES 6/2000 outlines local reaction to the news and ends with the possibility of further bad news, as Goodyear is reported as saying that substantial further restructuring is still needed.
Continue ReadingOfftake-Agreement Between Tofan And Cooper-Avon
Tofan Grup (Romania) is producing car tyres for Cooper-Avon at its Danubiana plant (Bucharest).
Continue ReadingCarbon Black From Recycling Tyres
Titan Technologies, Albuquerque/USA (not to be mistaken for Titan Tire) has announced progress in tyre recycling technology (process low-temperature pyrolysis). Besides good quality oil and scrap steel, significant quantities of carbon black for re-use in manufacturing tyres is generated.
Continue ReadingRecycling System From Tirex Corp. Canada For China
Well Express International (Hong Kong) is to purchase The Tirex Corp. Canadas (Montreal) patented cryogenic tyre recycling system TCS-1 for approximately 2.25 m US-$. Both companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding to market, sell and possibly manufacture TCS-1 in the Peoples Republic of China.
Continue ReadingHigh Targets: Continental Group To Doube Its Sales Within 5 Years
The German group remains on expansion track and sees itself not as a tyre manufacturer, but as a system integrator for the automobile industry. The management will double the group turnover of 10 bn Euro within the next five years, said CEO Kessel these days in Detroit.
Continue ReadingAcceleration For The Firestone Tyre Recall
In an attempt to quicken the recall of tyres, Bridgestone/Firestone is to airlift tyres from its Japanese plants to the USA. At least one flight a day is anticipated. Ford has announced that it is to stop production of the Ford Explorer at its St. Louis factory and of the Ford Ranger at two New Jersey plants for two weeks. The Ranger is fitted with the same size tyres as those fitted on the Explorer and being recalled by Bridgestone/Firestone. The move will free up 70,000 tyres for replacement and it is estimated that the cost to Ford in lost production will be over $100 m in after-tax profits. Ford is also understood to have increased orders of tyres other than Firestone to speed up replacement of tyres for the Explorer. Goodyear says it has increased production fivefold and production at Michelins US factories has tripled.
Continue ReadingGerman Retreader Invests in Berliner Reifenwerk
The medium-sized German retreader RuLa (Schraden) is to invest in Berliner Reifenwerk (BRW) and resume the retreading of truck tyres. BRW is under public administration after becoming insolvent. Car tyre retreading will not be resumed and negotiations with investors regarding the recycling facilities are under way. Because there are still uncertainties about who is the owner of the land on which BRW stands, negotiations are complicated.
Continue ReadingHalf Year Results For Michelin Confirm Disappointment
Michelin has released its financial results for the first half of the year, confirming the disappointing message given earlier. Turnover was 7,377 m Euro (first half of 1999: 6,488) and operating profit 540 m Euro (596). Increased raw material costs and a weak Euro were blamed as contributing factors, but Michelin says that the results do not fully reflect progress made in increasing competitiveness.
Continue ReadingRecall At Firestone Ends Sooner Than Planned
Bridgestone CEO Yoichiro Kaizaki has announced that, currently, 4.2 million of the total of 6.5 million tyres that were involved in the Firestone recall have been exchanged. The complete recall will be completed in November, much earlier than was previously announced. In August Firestone estimated that the recall would take until the summer of next year.
Continue ReadingThe Tyre As Part Of A System
The tyre can no longer be regarded as an isolated part of a car but is integrated into an increasingly complicated network or system. Progress in electronics especially has been revolutionary and has enormous influence on the work of tyre technicians. The engineers have to think in systems and integrate the tyre into all parts of the motive power of the car. Between the two corners tyre wheel system and the engine, is a wide field which the car makers and their suppliers are exploiting step by step. Immediately next to the tyres are modules such as brakes, shock absorbers and axles. Around the tyre is the chassis. The producers of certain of these elements in the past developed their own product without contacting the producers of neighbouring chassis parts. They were driven by their customers in the car industry, who gave information about the performance of the product with the target that all the parts should be compatible. As development progresses, this becomes harder and harder. In the future the suppliers will be forced to cooperate one with another, in order to make the best possible technology available for the car.
Continue ReadingFinancial Markets Advise Care With Automotive Shares
There is unanimity amongst financial institutes that anyone with investments in automotive shares should be very careful of their investments. The coming quarter does not look too promising; BMW, Peugeot/Citroën, Porsche and Renault (particularly thanks to Nissans better than expected results), should hold their position, but there seems to be no end in sight to the decline at DaimlerChrysler.
Continue Reading“No U-Turn On Job Cuts”, says Edouard Michelin
Edouard Michelin has confirmed that Michelin will go ahead with plans to reduce its European workforce by 10%, referring to the initiative as not just a cost-cutting plan or headcount reduction. It is a productivity plan that has an upside of speeding up growth. In the same interview, Edouard Michelin said that tyre industry consolidation was not at an end. Michelin, he said, will eventually have to make some kind of link, alliance, or even acquisition in Asia. He also suggested that medium-sized tyre companies will either merge or join the club of the large companies.
Continue ReadingFire At Michelin Warehouse
A fire started at a Michelin raw materials warehouse which is dedicated to Michelins largest plant at Clermont-Ferrand, where 5,000 people are employed.
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