Many cultures regard this period as the end of one year and the beginning of the next. I’m using that as an excuse to adopt a slightly more frivolous approach to this column. With no more pre-amble, let me look back at 2015 and make some predictions for 2016. The themes of 2015 were pretty
Last week I spent a lot of time with the VDI at their meeting in Hanover. For those who don’t know, the VDI – The German Association of Engineers – is a highly prestigious organisation which links many industries. For our industry, it was one of the few forums in 2015 where tire engineers employed
We’re putting together the programme for the Tire Technology Conference next year in Hanover. It’s exciting, pulling together 140 or so papers detailing the latest technological advances in this industry. A lot of things in this industry are incremental, so we have papers on a huge range of topics. Many of these have an element
Today’s announcement that Yokohama and Nippon Zeon have successfully made isoprene monomer from micro-organisms set me thinking about bio-tech in the rubber industry. I first reported on the use of micro-organisms to make isoprene back in 2008 when Goodyear announced its cooperation with Genencor. Genencor subsequently became part of DuPont. Since then, Goodyear has gone
As many of you know, I’ve been talking to many people in the global tire industry but last week at the excellent Latin American Tire show in Panama, organized by Gustavo Lima and his team, I had a bit of a revelation. I’d like to share it with you. We all know there are hundreds
In the previous article, I addressed how the international tire makers’ profitability in China might be threatened by greater availability of consumer data on tires. This article looks at the situation of China’s tire makers and how that might change in the coming decade or so. Falling prices China’s tire industry is probably the most
Hankook is the latest tire maker to produce a concept tire which relies on mechanical strength of plastic materials to carry load, rather than pneumatic pressure. The iFlex was shown at the Frankfurt IAA. I chatted with the engineers and their story was a little different from that which has been trumpeted by other publications.
Trawling the web this morning, I came across this image. It is taken from the Renault website. Renault launched this concept vehicle — the Twin’z — at the Milan Triennale this week. The Triennale is a festival of outstanding design. It’s not a car show. The Triennale audience is more used to fashion and product
Tire manufacturing in Europe is going through something of a crisis. In January Goodyear announced the closure of its factory in Amiens-North. Last month Bridgestone announced the closure of its factory in Bari, Italy. None of this has provoked much debate Rumours that Michelin will reduce its output, however have triggered a string of comment
Tire companies are reporting their results. So far Michelin, Goodyear, Yokohama, Toyo, Nokian, Hankook and Nexen have all reported for 2012. Indian companies Apollo, MRF, JK and Ceat also reported for the quarter ended December 2012, but their financial year runs from April to March, so they will not report full-year figures until May. Premium
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