No New Standard For Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems And Runflats In Sight
A short time after the Firestone recall in the US the Congress proclaimed a law so called Tread Act, the President signed it and it became effective. Especially the improvement in safety of the consumers was the target of this initiative, which should for a lot of products in the automotive area lead to changes, also for tyres and not only for tyre pressure monitoring systems. Among others was fixed that from November 1st all in the United States new registrated cars should be fitted with tyre monitoring systems. The American public agency NHTSA got the order to make proposals regarding the details of new tyre (safety) standards for the biggest vehicle market in the world. Under the title Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems the agency made a report, in which a lot of knowledge with regard of the contents in the Ford/Firestone dispute flued in. The NHTSA results should lead to a regulation the congress should agree on April 1st last year already. But even still now the procedere is not finished and got a set-back: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a White House department, gave the NHTSA report back to the agency and made some additional proposals the NHTSA should proof before a new standard regarding to car tyres could be concluded. Most criticized by the OMB were: too high costs - for the national economy, the affected industry and the consumers.That car makers and suppliers still have to wait until it will be clear which regulations will be common is a pity: We learnt to talk about the round black things and are not really surprised when we hear about elevations with fatale results about the state of tyres. The nowadays state of tyre technology however could lead to a situation that the tyre is at the far end of reasons for accidents. Our magazine gives the newest developments in the April issue in detail and also gave some insiders the opportunity to publish their point of view. They all agree in one point: The world of tyres - in technical aspects - stands before revolutionary changes, and a lot of new chances.
Continue ReadingSale Of Daewoo To GM Moves A Step Closer
Daewoo workers in Korea have voted for the merger of the company with General Motors. The union had the final veto over the sale, under which GM will take a 67 per cent stake in Daewoo, with the remainder going to creditors, but almost 70 per cent of the workforce voted in favour. Daewoo ran into trouble nearly 18 months ago when the break up of the large Daewoo organisation left the car maker with debts totalling 10 billion US$.
Continue ReadingCar Industry Between Hope And Worry
The car makers usually use the Geneve Car Salon not only for the presentation of their newest models and show cars but also for a position-fixing. Because they are in all the worlds single markets present and - especially the volume car manufacturers - in most of the market segments, the differences mostly are only in nuances. Not often before the views were so far away than this year: optimists versus pessimists; pragmatism here, utopism there; the picture of the global car market is rather distinguished.Scientists in the automotive area see the luxury segment on the limit. They believe that the progress in sales some car makers believe in will not happen. Unbroken seems the trend to sport utility vehicles (SUV) and especially to those with a very exclusive appointment. If you see such a car you might think of the roots of offroad vehicles, but the car makers made them to onroad cars. Whereas normal cars in the US again lost 10.9 percent market share at the beginning of this year, more light trucks were sold than ever and with a plus of 4.4% made the distance to passenger cars wider. Also in Europe more SUVs were sold, but it is common that the market for this segment will stay under the state of North America. But two other new trends enter the focus: On the one hand so called cross-over models mixing two traditional car segments into one - for example cabrio and offroad. The second trend has the market of small cars in focus: the cars might be small but not cheap as a car like the Mini shows.In Geneve the managers and journalists discussed about company state of business, markets with a sales plus were welcomed, markets with a minus were grieved over: Usually it was the wrong policy, but definitely the bad economy guilty. And the suppliers are always in the shipping lane of the car makers.
Continue ReadingSava Introduces New High Performance Tyre Intensa
Slovenian tyre manufacturer Sava, since 1998 owned 60 per cent by Goodyear, presented their new high performance tyre Intensa for middle and upper class vehicles to the press and an international group of 360 retailers, from 21 nations, in Planica at the end of March. The directional tyre, which will replace its predecessor Rapidex, has been developed in co-operation with the Luxembourg R&D-department of Goodyear and will appear in 27 different sizes from 185/65 R 14 86H up to low profile dimension 235/40 ZR 17 90 W.The new tyre is made at a production plant that is regarded as one of the best and most powerful within the Goodyear organisation. In the past year the 1,400 employees manufactured seven million tyres - however just 57 per cent of these had the brand name Sava on their sidewall. The other 43 per cent were other group brands - Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda, Debica and, until the end of 2001, some sizes of Kelly. All these brands are produced in parallel at the plant located in Kranj. The turnover of Sava could be increased 13 per cent up to 210.7 million US-Dollar under the leadership of Richard A. Johnson, former European finance boss of Goodyear. This year Sava aims to reach a result of 7.3 million units and a turnover of more than 233 million US-Dollar. Today, it is almost exclusively passenger car and light truck tyres that are manufactured in the production facility. The production of truck tyres has been shifted towards other plants in Poland and Turkey in recent years. Further foreign markets for the brand, which is well known in Central and Eastern Europe, include Western Europe, but especially South America, Middle East and Asia. Further highlights in the event programme were the guided tour through the factory in Kranj as well as a visit to the World-Cup final in ski-flying which is traditionally held in Planica.
Continue ReadingBullish Stance From Lampe
Speaking at a National Manufacturers Association conference in Nashville, John Lampe, chief executive of Bridgestone/Firestones US subsidiary, was extremely upbeat about the companys future. Im convinced we have emerged from the recall stronger than ever before he said, crediting the companys making it right information programme with the restoration of consumer confidence. Analysts say that planned restructuring and cash reserves should be sufficient to deal with any further problems arising from the recall and lead to profitability of all divisions. Lampe added that the company intends to build market share for both Bridgestone and Firestone brands with new products.
Continue ReadingName Change For Pacific Dunlop
Shareholders of Pacific Dunlop in Australia have voted to change the company name to Ansell Ltd. The name change is to reflect the organisations future focus on its protective products divisions.
Continue ReadingGround-Breaking Ceremony For Hyundai’s US Plant
Today sees the ground-breaking ceremony for Hyundais first car assembly plant in the USA. It is sited in Montgomery, Alabama and represents an investment of $1 billion. The factory on the 1,600 acre site will employ 2,000 people and produce 300,000 saloons and SUVs a year by 2005. Alabama offered incentives of over $252 million to attract Hyundai and the Korean company joins Honda and Toyota as foreign car companies with plants in the state.
Continue ReadingSupersport motorcycle tyres ContiForce Max
During the presentation of the ContiForce on the Contidrome near Hanover this spring, Jörg Essiger, Marketing Manager Motorcycle Tyres at Continental, hinted that the corporation did not intend resting on its laurels after the introduction of this newly developed radial motorcycle tyre. It was suggested that work was being carried out on the development of a tyre for Super Sport Motorcycles, in order to make the ContiForce product range complete. Now, the waiting game is over: the Hanover people have now fulfilled their promise in the form of the ContiForce Max, recently introduced to the trade press on the Ricardo Tomo track in Valencia, Spain. This new tyre is available in the dimensions 120/70 ZR17 (58W) for the front wheel, and 180/55 ZR17 (73W) and 190/50 ZR17 (73W) for the back wheel, and Continental wishes it to be known that some two years of research and development have been invested here, which goes to underline Continentals new and growing interest in this market segment. And, the introduction of the ContiForce Max is by no means the end of Continentals involvement in the motorcycle tyre segment. Already last year, at the presentation of the ContiForce, Essiger hinted at what was to come and stated :Our new products are already in the pipeline! He did not, however, reveal what Continental was hiding behind these remarks. Now, after all, the Motorcycle Exhibition Intermot will be taking place in Munich this autumn, and perhaps some of Continentals plans for the coming season will be revealed there!
Continue ReadingMarangoni’s plans for the Stunner brand
As from this spring, Marangoni Tyre is launching an effort to broaden its customer base in Germany - at the same increasing its tyre sales in general - for their second brand Stunner. New partners are being sought in the trade for the distribution of this second brand. The German market has so far not been very much exposed to Marangonis second brand, and the corporation hopes to introduce the tread design formerly known as Zeta ESC to the market under the name of Stunner Scudo. The Zeta Linea, successor to the Zeta ESC, will take its place within the Marangoni product range, now that it is available in many new dimensions up to 19 inch. Further, at the Essen tyre trade show, Marangoni intends to announce that the Vanto tyre model will take over from the Heron model and the Italians will officially present this new tyre to the international trade press soon afterwards. The asymmetrical Vanto will be available in sizes up to 16 inch, maximum 235/55 R 16W and, according to PR and Communications Manager Mario Apolloni, its introduction will herald a very special and important moment for Marangoni.
Continue ReadingQuo Vadis, Continental?
The German manufacturer made a loss of more than 250 million Euro last year, due mainly to restructuring expenses. This means that the group is going to close tyre factories in Mexico as well as Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. While the European Car tyre Division remained very successful, the same cannot be said for the Truck Tyre Division and the American tyre activities are also in deep water, facing big losses. On the other hand, the group has had to pay over 200 million Euro for the remaining 40 per cent of Temic, having purchased the first 60 per cent from DaimlerChrysler earlier last year, but Continental has been unable to sell ContiTech; nobody was willing to buy that part of the group, which the management believes is worth about 1 billion Euro. What are the choices facing Continental now? Will the group not be forced to sell General Tire and the Truck Division in order to focus on passenger car tyres and ContiTeves in the automotive field?
Continue ReadingPirelli Is On Track
In an interview with Neue Reifenzeitung, Dr. Francesco Gori, who is head of the tyre divisions worldwide, revealed that in 2001, Pirelli achieved almost the same turnover and EBIT figures as it had in 2000. In the future, Pirelli will invest more in passenger car tyres and less in the truck tyre business, but will not sell the Truck Division. Pirelli is successful with truck tyres mainly in southern Europe and Latin America. From July 1st, Pirelli will change the terms of its agreement with its alliance partner Cooper in the USA and will once again resume full responsibility for the Pirelli brand. In Europe, the company is optimising its structure, moving responsibilities increasingly towards its Milan headquarters, to oversee European operations as a single market.
Continue ReadingRe-Election Of Goodyear Directors
Goodyear shareholders have re-elected three directors to the companys board for three year terms. The three are: Sam Gibara (chairman and CEO), William J. Hudson (retires president and CEO of AMP Inc.) and Martin D. Walker (retired chairman and CEO of M.A.). Goodyear also declared a quarterly dividend of 12 cents per share.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Loses Big Customers Due To Kmart Insolvency
Mass-Merchandiser Kmart, one of the biggest competitors of US-Giant Wal-Mart, filed for chapter 11 some months ago, trying to restructure the group and avoid a total crash. Because of this crisis 563 Penske Auto-Service Centers closed last week. These centers were operated by Penske Auto Centers (PAC) at Kmart locations. PAC is owned 1/3 by Kmart and 2/3 by Penske corporation. Penske Auto Centers used to be the biggest independent tyre dealer in the US and was one of the important key-customers of the Goodyear-group.
Continue ReadingGoodyear: Annual Shareholder Meeting
This monday Goodyear holds its shareholder meeting in Akron/Ohio. In daily newspapers, as well as in business papers, complacent-sounding analysts are quoted, who point the finger at what Gibara has promised and failed to deliver in recent years. The loss of 203.6 million US-Dollars was not according to plan. The long term debt at 31st December 2001, at 3.1 bn US$, passed another milestone (2000: 2.4 billion US$). And it is known that the first quarter of this year also was disappointing. The analysts agree that there will be no improvements before the second half of the year.
Continue ReadingFirestone Truck Tyres Found To Be Okay
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has closed an investigation into Firestones truck tyres STEELTEX, saying that there is no design- or manufacturing defect. Good news for a change for troubled Bridgestone/Firestone in the USA.
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