Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is set to open its manufacturing plants in the United States and Serbia next week (the week commencing Monday 27 April). The facilities have been temporarily closed for approximately five weeks due to coronavirus and its impacts. The company’s plant in Melksham, UK remains temporarily closed. And Cooper’s Mexico plant is to close temporarily.
Operations at Cooper Tire & Rubber Company’s production facility in El Salto, Mexico resumed yesterday. Measures to protect the health and safety of employees, including social distancing, additional cleaning and disinfecting of facilities, as well as restricted visitor access, were put in place as employees returned to work. Cooper announced the plant’s temporary closure due to coronavirus impacts on 21 March.
SPR Group recently set up a new tyre recycling plant in San José, Costa Rica via its affiliate in Mexico.
The new facility, located in the capital city of Costa Rica, has been designed to afford the use of the secondary fast-rotation granulator getting an input up to 5 tonnes per hour. This technological solution developed by SPR Group makes it possible to obtain a granulometry lower than 35 mm ready to be used as Alternative Fuel in the industry.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company announced on Friday that its tyre manufacturing plants in North America will remain shuttered for at least another two weeks. The company began closing down its Findlay, Clarksdale, Tupelo and Texarkana facilities in the USA and El Salto plant in Mexico on 21 March and intended to shut them down for two two three weeks. It says the production pause is being extended both to protect the health and safety of employees and as a response to decreased market demand. Cooper will continue to closely monitor the situation and adjust timing as necessary.
Market demand for tyres in some parts of the world is declining parallel to the spread of the coronavirus, and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has responded by announcing a temporary shutdown of its tyre manufacturing facilities in the United States and Mexico. In a statement published on Saturday, the tyre maker said it is also “currently assessing plans” for its operations in Europe. Cooper Tires’ plants in China, which reopened several weeks ago and have continued to ramp up production since then, remain in operation.
After purchasing its former partner’s 42 per cent share in the Corporación de Occidente S. A. de C.V. (COOCSA) joint venture in Mexico, Cooper Tire & Rubber halted passenger and commercial vehicle production at the site and re-hired the workforce there as employees of Cooper Tires. Brad Hughes, the tyre maker’s president and chief executive officer, reports that Cooper Tires is “now in the process of ramping production back up” at the site. Restructuring the plant will cost the company around US$10 million, an expense that will mainly occur in the first quarter of 2020.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has completed the acquisition its Mexico joint venture tyre manufacturing facility, Corporación de Occidente S. A. de C.V. (COOCSA). The agreement to increase its shareholding from 58 to 100 per cent was announced on 1 November 2019.
Yokohama Rubber has announced another original equipment supply agreement, this time for North America. Its Yokohama Avid S34RV has been chosen as an original equipment tyre for 2020 Chrysler Voyager models sold in the US and Mexican markets. The Voyager will wear the tyre in size 235/65R17 104T.
Retreading machinery manufacturer TRM reports that it has just delivered “the most modern OTR retread plant” to Kal Tire Mexico operation. The factory, located in the desert of Sonora, close to the biggest open-pit copper mine in Mexico and one of the largest mines in the world, was put in operation via the collaboration of Kal Tire’s Mexican field team TRM’s technical team.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company intends to completely acquire its joint venture tyre manufacturing facility in Mexico. It currently holds a 58 per cent share in Corporación de Occidente S.A. de C.V. (COOCSA), but has entered into a definitive agreement with partner Trabajadores Democraticos de Occidente S.C. de R.L. de C.V. (TRADOC) to acquire its 42 per cent stake. On Friday, a majority of TRADOC members voted in favour of the agreement.
The U.S. Senator representing the home state of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has written to the tyre maker, imploring it to improve the renumeration and treatment it gives workers at its plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Sherrod Brown, Senator for Ohio, urged Richard Kramer, Goodyear’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, to “take immediate steps” to improve both. He also criticised Goodyear’s decision to recently prevent Members of the United States Congress from touring the facility.
A number of US lawmakers have criticized Goodyear Tire & Rubber over its treatment of workers at its San Luis Potosi, Mexico tyre factory in a letter to CEO Richard Kramer. Democratic Representatives Rosa DeLauro, Terri Sewell and Jimmy Gomez signed the letter and complained that their access to the site was limited.
Galgo has earned the distinction of being an ESR “Socially Responsible Company” for the eighth consecutive year. This award is given by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (Cemefi) and the Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibly (AliaRSE) and is presented to organizations that are committed to engaging with and supporting social and environmental protection programs within their community.
