Arrows Fired From Formula One
The Arrows F1 racing team has been excluded from next years series of races, following a season during which the team did not appear in five races and also suffered financial difficulties. F1 is facing falling TV audiences and there are moves afoot to change the technical regulations in order to make the races more interesting.
Continue ReadingSmarTire Plans London Listing
Canadian company SmarTire, which makes tyre pressure monitoring systems, is said to be considering moving its stock exchange listing from Nasdaq to London. The reason, according to chief executive Robert Rudman, is a lack of understanding of its business among US investors. SmarTire is bidding for potentially lucrative contracts and Rudman believes the company is undervalued, with shares having fallen to 60 cents.
Continue ReadingUS Tyre Dealer Accused Of Goodyear Fraud
William L. Davis, a former manager of a Goodyear-owned tyre store in the USA, has been accused of defrauding the manufacturer of $1.5 million. Davis allegedly ordered tyres at a discount then sold them at a profit, with the payments going through a separate company he had set up. If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $1 million.
Continue ReadingGalaxy And Trayal Sign Off-Take Agreement
Galaxy Tire & Wheel has signed a five-year, $27.5 million off-take and technology sharing agreement with Yugoslavian company Trayal. Trayal will produce Galaxy and Constellation skid steer and industrial tyres and the two companies will develop a line of off-road radials to replace Galaxys current line of port tyres. They will also collaborate on a line of special trailer radials and, when these are available, Galaxy will market wheel/tyre assemblies to OE trailer manufacturers.
Continue ReadingLarge US Retread Contract For Michelin
In the United States, Michelin Retread Technologies has won a two-year contract to supply retreads and servicing to the vehicle fleet of utility company Alabama Power Co. The fleet includes around 1,900 passenger and light truck vehicles, 840 heavy trucks, 1,000 trailers and 30 off-road vehicles.
Continue ReadingKumho Talks Come To Nothing
The talks between the Kumho Group and the US consortium of JP Morgan Chase and the Carlyle Group, aimed at selling Kumhos tyre division, have broken down. The disagreement was over prices, with a Kumho spokesman quoted as saying that the consortiums offer price was really cheap and unacceptable. Earlier in the year, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding to sell 80 per cent of the Kumho Tyre, but this expired in November with no deal finalised. Kumho says it is talking to another - as yet unnamed - buyer.
Continue ReadingKoSa Expands Tyre Cord Production
KoSa is investing in the expansion of two of its tyre cord facilities; at Queretaro (Mexico) and Charlotte (North Carolina). Output at Queretaro will increase by 40 per cent, while the investment at Salisbury will mean higher quality product for packages.
Continue ReadingSime Darby Increase Profits In Q1
Sime Darby Bhd has reported a 17% rise in net profit to RM 214.1mil for its first quarter ended Sept 30. We are quite pleased with the results and if this trend continues, we can beat last years performance, said Sime Darby group chief executive Tan Sri Nik Mohamed Yaacob. Its tyre manufacturing division saw improved profits thanks to production efficiencies and a rise in turnover.
Continue ReadingCOO For Dunlop Aircraft Tyres
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Limited (DATL) has appointed Stuart Smith as chief operating officer. Smith assumes responsibility for all the operations of the company and reports to Rene Charvillat, chief executive officer and chairman. Smith takes over from Andrew Milner who has resigned from his position as managing director of DATL for personal reasons. Milner had successfully managed DATL since 1995 and now wishes to undertake a new challenge. Stuart Smith has thirty five years experience in aerospace and previously held senior management positions in the wheel, brake, tyre, brake control and anti-skid sector.
Continue ReadingContinental Truck Tyres: Restructuring Pays Off
It was in mid-2001 that we reported on the plans of Continental Tyre group to drastically re-organise its commercial tyre operations in the UK. How successful was it? The result was no cosmetic tinkering with the problem, but a root and branch reform that ushered in a fundamental change in the way the manufacturer brought its tyres to market. Contis plan was to form a network of independent truck tyre dealers, each with their own territory, to provide an effective nationwide service capability. The commercial division of the Conti-owned equity, NTS, disappeared, with some depots being bought out, others purchased by outside parties and a handful joining ContiNetwork, as the new chain was called.Certainly Continental needed to take some action, as its commercial tyre activities were consistently posting losses, and the radical surgery that was the introduction of the ContiNetwork was seen as the best way. So, 18 months or so on, has it worked? Has the patient recovered? At the time, there were some mutterings that the whole exercise was merely a precursor to Continental quitting the truck tyre business - something which, to be fair, the company has always vehemently denied.The company had turned its loss-making commercial activities into a profit, the ContiNetwork members were happy with the volume and profit they were making and the fact that no fleet customers had been lost indicates that they must be happy.Arthur Gregg, Business Director for Commercial Tyres, certainly believes that the future is bright and pays tribute to what has been achieved over a relatively short period. Weve gone from loss to profit and established what we regard as the UKs premier independent network, he said, concluding: the truck tyre business makes a profit for us and for our partners.
Continue ReadingSuccessful Year For Pirelli Rallying
It has been a good year for Pirelli-shod cars involved in rallying. In the recent Rally Great Britain, Petter Solberg notched up his first World Rally Championship win, with Pirelli taking the first six places. Solberg claimed 2nd place in the 2002 Drivers Championship, ahead of Ford/Pirelli drivers Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. In the USA, Pirelli-sponsored drivers scored a 1-2-3 in the SCCA ProRally series drivers championship and a 1-2 in Group N. Success too in the Pirelli British Rally Championship, with a Pirelli 1-2 in Group N and first and third in the overall drivers championship. Other successes: 2-3 in the Super Drivers Championship and first places in the Toshiba Irish Tarmac Championship and the New Pig Scottish Championship. In Australia, Pirelli-shod cars were 1-2 in the Kumho ANCRO (Asia-Pacific) Championship.
Continue ReadingRetread Market: The Current State Of Play
T&A looks at the recent history of retreading, the threats and the opportunities. According to RAPRA, the number of tyres generated in the UK that would be suitable for retreading is around 15 per cent of car tyres and 50-70 per cent of truck tyres. However, it is reported that only nine per cent of car tyres are retreaded and as few as 24 per cent of truck tyres. It should be noted that many customer own tyre contracts include retreaded tyres which do not get included in this figure and these may amount to as many as 35% of the total retread truck tyre volume in the UK.In 1994 an estimated 14 per cent of the UK car tyre replacement market was taken by the retread sector. This dropped to 12 per cent by 1998 (something around 16 million tyres) and collapsed to eight per cent in 1999 and is continuing to fall. This is a far cry from the 20 per cent market share held in the 1970s and 1980s (when, ironically, the quality was perhaps not quite so good as it is today). Figures for the tonnage retreaded show an increase between 1999 and 2000 from 76,000 tonnes to 77,000 tonnes.Truck retreading is not a particular problem, though there are shortages of casings in some sizes, particularly older more popular retread sizes. The truck tyre market is looking at the cost per kilometre, and retreading lowers the cost per kilometre and makes tyre use much more cost effective. The truck operator sees retreads as a tool to lower running costs.
Continue ReadingNTDA Backs Tyre World Exhibition
The National Tyre Distributors Association has formally endorsed the new Tyre World event, scheduled for October 2003 in Earls Court, London. Buzz Carter, of organisers IDEX Media, said that London had been chosen after extensive research showed that it was the preference of domestic and international visitors. Tyre World will include a programme of seminars and associated events, including the NTDAs annual conference Intyreactive and the national Tyre Technician of the Year competition. Further details are expected soon.
Continue ReadingThe Retread Process: As Good As New?
If the guys who sell tyres on the countrys fast fits are to be believed, the retread is dead. There are regular anecdotes coming back through the grapevine from customers who have been told that: they dont make car retreads any more; youll only get 3,000 miles on a retread; or even more insidiously - they are dangerous - I wouldnt have my mother-in-law driving on them… One wholesaler who had just delivered a batch of retreads to a client overheard that same client tell a customer asking for the very product that he had just delivered that they didnt carry them!There may be numerous reasons for this misinformation about retreads. It may be that the fitters simply dont understand the process of either tyre manufacture or tyre retreading. It may be that there are greater margins to be made from selling budget tyre brands. It may simply be down to personal prejudice. There is an assumption made by many in the tyre business that everyone understands what a retread is. Since very few in the tyre business understand the process of tyre manufacture, then even fewer are likely to understand the process of tyre retreading - yet the two are very closely related - especially in the hot cure process.T&A took the opportunity to tour one of the UKs leading retread operations at Vacu-Lug to view both the hot cure and the precure methods operating side by side (these are the two main methods of retreading).
Continue ReadingRetreading: Top Of The Recycling Pile?
Retreading appears to generate a dichotomy for U.K Governments environmental sustainability programme. On the one hand, retreading a tyre obviously makes better use of the original materials and extends the life of the new tyre, thus creating a lesser demand on fossil fuels and an ultimately finite supply of some raw materials. On the other hand, like any other consumer product, a retread will still end up needing recycling at some time in its life; some call this deferred disposal, but it seems that not all the environmental lobbyists have recognised the fact that recycling only ever delays the ultimate disposal; it can rarely, if ever, offer a final solution but still plays a vital role in resource management.In the UK we already have a very high percentage of recovery and re-use of tyres, including a significant contribution from retreading. Gary Oliver, Chairman of the RMA Marketing and Communication Committee, explains further why he believes retreads are industrys leading sustainable option. The retreaders case goes something like this. If the market uses 200,000 tonnes of new tyres per annum, then over five years there will be a demand for 1,000,000 tonnes of new tyres. If 50% of those tyres are retreaded every year, then the demand for new tyres falls to 600,000 tonnes over five years, whilst retreading accounts for the other 400,000 tonnes. The fundamentals to sustainable development are thereby catered for; that waste is minimised from 1,000,000 tonnes to just 600,000 tonnes and scarce natural resources are conserved. The maths are simplistic, of course, but if the primary objective of best environmental practice is to minimise use of raw materials, retreading does this whilst also meeting the second best objective of re-use. It is non-sensical that in its recent Producer Responsibility paper the DTI - with the Environment Agency in support - took retreading out of the reprocessing calculations for waste tyres ignoring a real and positive contribution to sustainable practice and effective waste management. By taking us out of the picture simply because we do not fit the way they wish to work and measure their environment performance indicators, we are effectively excluded from any of the economic considerations and unable to contribute towards waste recovery.
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