Lower Vehicle Sales, Imported Tyres Hammering Indian Manufacturers
A slowing demand for new vehicles in India has prompted led to OE tyre supplies from manufacturers based in the country to reduce by as much as 70 per cent. And the story is not much better in the aftermarket sector, reports the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), who says that cheaper imported Chinese made tyres are also having an impact. “While the slowdown in the automobile sector has impacted the OE business, cheap imports and large scale dumping of tyres from China has created havoc with the replacement segment, forcing the tyre industry to go for production cuts,” said R P Singhania, who is chairman of both JK Tyres and the ATMA. All major Indian and multinational tyre companies, including Apollo, Birla, Bridgestone, Ceat, Goodyear, JK Tyres and MRF, are proceeding with production cuts of varying intensity in view of slowing demand.
Continue ReadingUS Battery Makers and Research Centre Form Alliance
Leading US battery companies have teamed up with one of the country’s largest national laboratories to form the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture. The object of the alliance is to manufacture advanced lithium ion battery cells for transportation applications in the United States. The founding members of the Alliance include 3M, ActaCell, All Cell Technologies, Altair Nanotechnologies, Dontech Global, EaglePicher Corporation, EnerSys, Envia Systems, FMC, MicroSun Technologies, Mobius Power, SiLyte, Superior Graphite, and Townsend Advanced Energy. Additional battery developers and materials suppliers are anticipated to join the Alliance. The US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, a national research laboratory and leading developer of new battery technologies, has been active in encouraging the Alliance and will continue to serve in an advisory role as the Alliance begins operations.
Continue ReadingGPX to Close Hayward Facility
GPX says it has launched a company-wide initiative to improve its productivity and international distribution network. Due to what the company calls ‘unprecendented economic pressures in the market’, the company has conducted comprehensive reviews to help it determine where we can serve our customer base most efficiently. As a result, GPX intends to close its Hayward, California facility. Distribution operations will continue until March 1, 2009.
Continue ReadingStatutory Negotiations at Nokian Concluded
Statutory negotiations at Nokian Heavy Tyres were concluded on December 19 with the company taking the decision to lay off a number of employees for approximately six months. Nokian cites the decreased demand for heavy tyres demand caused by the financial crisis and a subsequent reduction in production, as the reason behind the lay-offs.
Continue ReadingConti HTR 2 Receives 2009 iF Product Design Award
An international jury has awarded the “iF product design award 2009” to Continental for the design of its HTR 2 trailer tyre. The HTR 2 is a tyre, says Conti, that heralds a completely new generation of tyres to be launched over the next two years, and the manufacturer says the product range represents a quantum leap in terms of technology. Continental regards the tyre’s high mileage, patented “Airkeep System” that delivers 50 per cent improved constant tyre inflation pressure and low rolling resistance as the qualities that have secured its position of technical leader in its class within a short amount of time. The Continental tyre designers faced the challenge of creating a distinctive external appearance to match this technology and they also had to convey the quality of the product through the design.
Continue ReadingDunlop India Managers Allegedly Beaten Up
The tyre trade can be a ruthless business sometimes….Two Dunlop India managers have reportedly been beaten up by members of the INTUC employee’s union at the company’s Sahagunj factory. The Calcutta based Telegraph newspaper reports that, on the afternoon of December 17, the men were attacked following accusations of attempting to smuggle machinery out of the closed unit. One of the two was taken to hospital for observation.
Continue ReadingConti/Schaeffler EU Ruling Due Tomorrow
Continental AG shares rose to one-month high as the stock market speculated that European regulators will give the Schaeffler Group takeover bid the green-light tomorrow. Bloomberg reported that Conti stock surged 19 per cent to 42.70 euros during the day’s trading. Meanwhile dormant tensions in the seemingly inharmonious takeover appear to be mounting again following newspaper reports that Schaeffler is planning to force out Hubertus von Gruenberg. Continental’s supervisory board chairman. According to Handelsblatt, “Von Gruenberg wants to establish a ‘leading role’ for Continental within the merged company, an effort that Schaeffler CEO Juergen Geissinger is attempting to thwart.”
Continue ReadingWoman Avoids Prison for Bridgestone-Firestone Embezzlement
An American woman that embezzled more than US$200,000 from Bridgestone Firestone over a nine-year period will avoid spending time in prison after pleading guilty to theft and two counts of forgery. Janet Lazdins from Indianapolis pleaded guilty in August to taking around $215,000 from the company between 1997 and 2006, and on December 15, Madison Superior Court 3 Judge Thomas Newman on Monday gave her a three-year suspended prison term and ordered her to spend three years on probation.
Continue ReadingDunlop, French Magazine Unveil New Series Plan
Dunlop and Performance French Cars Magazine have announced that the Dunlop Sport Maxx Production Cup will be introducing a new trophy for the 2009 season. The production cup has teamed together with Performance French Cars magazine to praise the best performing French car of the championship. The Dunlop Sport Maxx Production Cup is part of the Dunlop Great & British Motorsport Festival. With the stated aim of “putting national motorsport back on the map,” Dunlop Great & British hosts three championships: Mini Challenge, Radical Sportscars and the Dunlop Sport Maxx Production Cup, over six weekends. The Production Cup introduces this new trophy following the success of French cars on the grid during the 2008 season. Renaultsport Megane R26, Renaultsport Clio and Peugeot 106 GTi were amongst the leading French cars with top rankings across the Sport Maxx classes.
Continue ReadingDelticom Growing in Europe Despite Weak Market Conditions
Delticom AG’s client base may grow by as much as a quarter in 2009. In an interview, company CFO Frank Schuhardt said that Delticom’s retail customer base could reach three million by the middle of the year, compared with 2.4 million at the end of September 2008. Sales at the German company for 2008 will be “in the middle” of a range of 240 million euros to 260 million euros, he added.
Continue ReadingUnder Pressure
A survey conducted by Continental suggests that Britain’s young drivers are the social group least likely to check their car tyre pressure. The national poll revealed that under-25s are twice as likely to leave their tyres unchecked than any other age group, with almost half (46 per cent) completely unaware what their tyre pressure should be. One in five of the young people polled had not checked their tyre pressures in the last month compared to the standard across all ages of one in 12. Conti estimates that “an average driver could waste as much as £120 a year on fuel by not regularly checking their tyre pressure.” With this in mind, younger drivers facing high motoring costs with more expensive insurance premiums can not afford to ignore their tyre pressures. For a generally more environmentally aware sector of the public, young people should also be considering that the average car driver could produce an extra 250lbs of CO2 a year by not maintaining their tyre pressures.
Continue ReadingDubai Tyre Trade Worth £729 million
Dubai’s direct tyre trade (both commercial and passenger car products) amounted to 4.15 billion UAE dirhams (£729 million, 773 million euros, US$1.13 billion) in 2007, according to the Gulf Daily News. Further growth is expected next year, the paper reported. Commercial tyres worth 1.1 billion (175 million, 186 million euros) dirhams for buses and lorries were imported to Dubai last year, mainly from Japan, China, and India, said Automechanika Middle East senior show manager Michael Dehn, adding: …Dubai consumes almost 64 per cent, re-exporting 36pc to Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Africa. The commercial vehicle market is an essential industry in the UAE and an increase of 35 per cent is expected from this year to 2012.
Continue ReadingLanxess to Reduce or Halt Production at Numerous German Facilities
Following reaching an agreement with employee representatives, Lanxess AG has announced its plans to cut back or shut down production at 23 out of 45 of its German production facilities over the Christmas period and into January 2009. These arrangements, planned for the company’s Leverkusen, Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen and Brunsbuettel sites, will directly affect around 1,400 employees.
Continue ReadingYokohama Driver 1st Woman to Win 2 Off-Road Truck Championships
Yokohama Tire Corporation-sponsored Heidi Steele became the first woman driver to win a Best in the Desert (BITD) off-road racing truck championship when she placed third at the Fabtech Desert Classic in Henderson, Nevada on Saturday, December 6. Steele also became the first woman truck champion in SCORE (Class 7SX mid-size truck) after taking a second-place class finish in November’s Baja 1000 in Ensenada, Mexico.
Continue ReadingNovember’s Market Worse Than October’s, Says Michelin Data
The report published by Morgan Stanley Research Europe says it all: “If investors thought tyre data was poor in October, it just got worse…” What this memorable sentence refers to is data released by Michelin on December 18, which shows the supposedly more resilient passenger car tyre replacement market to be down in Europe 10.3 per cent in November, and in North America by a hefty 20.2 per cent. OE sales in the segment dropped a spectacular 33.5 per cent in Europe and 31.2 per cent in North America.
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