European Rubber Journal articles from January 2007

European Rubber Journal archives from January 2007

On the ERJ web site ... www.europeanrubberjournal.com.(Briefs)
January 1, 2007... You can find all the news we can't fit into the magazine, including... US Chemicals body slams REACH legislation as 'Unworkable'... Food-grade O-rings can be detected with metal detector... Terra Elastomer is rubber recycling expert......

TPV body seal wins SPE innovation award; Jyco wins award for world's first TPV body-mounted primary seal used in a complete dynamic-sealing application.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw The TPV primary body seal on Chrysler's 2007 Dodge Ram pickup has won a top award for innovation for Jyco Sealing Technologies. "A lot of people in the industry said it couldn't be done," said Shawn Jyawook, Jyco's...

Ford centre to OK Chinese parts.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: James Treece Automotive News Ford Motor Co. plans to invest 220 million yuan ([euro]21.8 million) in a research and engineering centre in China. It will work with Ford's purchasing office to validate Chinese parts for export. It...

Kumho takes aim at fifth spot globally; Kumho is aiming to jump up the league table of top tyre makers, and aims to do it by adding capability and add resources.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: Lisa Hockensmith Tire Business Kumho Tire Co. wants to jump from 10th to fifth-largest global tyre maker by 2015, and it's counting on its growing dealer network to help it achieve that ranking. Executives of Kumho Tire US...

Briefs.
January 1, 2007... Hankook Tire aims for No 5 slot by 2012 Seoul, Korea - Korean tyre maker Hankook Tire wants to be the fifth largest tyre maker in the world by 2012. Just a week earlier Korean competitor Kumho announced its ambition to rise to fifth...

Kumho pioneers use of Lyocell.(News)
January 1, 2007... Kumho Tyres has introduced a range of tyres that use the proprietary Lyocell fibre as a replacement for cellulose-based rayon. Lyocell is a fibre made from wood pulp cellulose and offers a less environmentally-damaging manufacturing process...

USW workers return to work at Goodyear plants in the US.(News)
January 1, 2007... Union workers who had been striking for nearly three months at 16 Goodyear production sites in the US and Canada have returned to work, the Akron tyre maker announced. "Goodyear welcomes the return to work of our USW associates," said Jon...

Goodyear to close Moroccan tyre plant this year.(News)
January 1, 2007... Goodyear will close its 35-year-old tyre plant in Casablanca, Morocco, during 2007 and will take a charge against earnings of about $28 million to cover the related expenses. The closing of the plant and subsequent liquidation of Goodyear...

Goodyear seeks voluntary redundancies in non-tyre.(News)
January 1, 2007... Goodyear will offer voluntary redundancy payments to 411 union employees at four Engineered Products plants as part of its master contract, ratified last month by the United Steelworkers. The Goodyear plant in Lincoln, Nebraska, will offer...

Bridgestone changes are aimed at boosting sales; Bridgestone Corp is re-organising its management with the aim of becoming faster and more flexible, devolving some of the decision-making power away from Tokyo to the regional headquarters.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: Roger Schreffler Bridgestone Corp. has big plans for its global tyre business. Kiyoshi Nomura, vice president in charge of international tyre operations, is one of the key people charged with seeing that the company realises those...

Bridgestone to build [euro]180 million OTR tyre plant in Japan.(News)
January 1, 2007... Bridgestone Corp. plans to build a plant for large off-the-road tyres in Japan over the coming two-and-a-half years at a cost of [yen]28 500 million ([euro]180 million) to support growing demand for the tyres used in mining and construction....

Freudenberg expands in China but not for exports; Freudenberg-NOK thinks its five factories in China should be used primarily to supply the Chinese market, and not for export.(News)(Industry overview)
January 1, 2007... Byline: Klaus-Dieter Floerecke Automobilwoche Freudenberg-NOK Group, the German-Japanese joint-venture auto supplier, continues to expand in China. But it does not view China as a source of inexpensive parts for export back to Europe. ...

EC fines 5 suppliers $628 million for SR price fixing; Yet more rubber manufacturing companies found guilty of collaborating on prices.(Suppliers)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw The European Commission has fined five petrochemical companies a total of [euro]519 million for their involvement in a synthetic rubber price-fixing scheme between 1996 and 2002. Italy's Eni SpA received the biggest...

Briefs.(Sinorgchem Co.)
January 1, 2007... Degussa offers $4m to settle carbon black antitrust case Boston, Massachussetts - Degussa Corp., Degussa AG and Degussa Engineered Carbons LP are offering $4 million in partial settlement of a carbon black antitrust case before the US...

Managers joining with equity group to purchase Farrel; Farrel is to go private, with an offer shareholders can hardly refuse.(Suppliers)
January 1, 2007... Byline: Bill Bregar Plastics News Farrel Corp. executives-backed by a private equity group-plan to purchase the rubber machinery manufacturer. Farrel will move from being a publicly held company with stock traded over the counter to a...

Briefs.
January 1, 2007... H-F parent buys Techint-Pomini mixer division Hamburg, Germany - Possehl Group, parent of Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH, is acquiring the Rubber & Plastics division of the Italian company, Pomini, owned by the Argentinian steel...

NR roller coaster expected to continue into 2007; Rubber prices are steadily increasing again, following record highs set last summer and a dip through to November. 2007 is likely to repeat the pattern of 2006, say the experts.(News)(Miles Moore)
January 1, 2007... Byline: Miles Moore Rubber & Plastics News Natural rubber prices have been on a roller coaster ride over the last 12 months, and that probably will continue in 2007-though with more emphasis on the peaks than the valleys. On...

Russian supplier offers NBR to UK, Ireland.(News)
January 1, 2007... The nitrile rubber plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, has appointed an agent to promote sales of its materials into the UK and Ireland. Ivan Lyashenko, head of development for the Krasnoyarsk plant, said: "The UK/Ireland market is extremely...

Briefs.(Conti UK)
January 1, 2007... David Smith to take over from Brian Smith at Conti UK West Drayton. UK - David Smith, previously director of Finance and IT director at the UK subsidiary of Continental, took over the position of managing director from Brian Smith who left...

Tire technology expo to take place in Cologne, March 13-15.(News)
January 1, 2007... Over 90 speakers will present papers at the tire technology conference in March. With subjects ranging from Methods to retrieve data from tyres to REACH legislation - a simplified overview?, the conference is going to highlight many of the...

Programme (13 March) - Day 1.(News)
January 1, 2007... Session 1 Future advances in tyre design, development and manufacturing 08.45 - 09.00 Opening address: Joe Zekoski, general director, Goodyear Luxembourg Technical Centre 09.00 - 09.25 The tyre as a dynamic tool: Damian Harty,...

Programme (14 March) - Day 2.(News)
January 1, 2007... Session 1 Futuristic technologies 09.00 - 09.25 Performance of a tyre with a porous tread: Prof Jerzy Ejsmont, Technical University of Gdansk and Adj Prof Ulf Sandberg, VTI (Swedish National Road & Transport Research Inst.) 09.25...

Briefs.(Cooper-Standard Automotive Group, Leyland Rubber Ltd )
January 1, 2007... Cooper-Standard to close Ohio fluid systems plant Novi, Michigan - Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. will close its fluid systems plant in Archbold, Ohio, by the third quarter of 2008. The unit employs about 215. Production and...

Programme (15 March) - Day 3.(News)
January 1, 2007... Session 1 CAE and CAD enhancement 09.00 - 09.20 Tyre footprint prediction in by a developed 3D finite element model: Mahdieh Zamzamzadeh, Kerman Tire & Rubber Co 09.20 - 09.40 Hyperelastic material models fitting to experimental...

TTE Exhibitors: Part 1 of 2.(News)
January 1, 2007... 01dB-Metravib F15 in Conference Hall 01dB-Metravib offers the full range of DMA (Dynamic Mechanical Analysis) instruments, with high force range (+/-450N) and frequency range up to 10 kHz, and the option of automated sample loading...

Bridgestone to buy Bandag for $1050 m.(News)
January 1, 2007... Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. is to purchase tyre retreading materials and equipment maker Bandag Inc. in a deal that would be worth about $1050 million ([euro]791 million). Following completion of the transaction, Bandag will operate...

Briefs.
January 1, 2007... Bandag sale unexpected, Carver says Muscatine, Iowa - Several months ago Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. chairman and CEO Mark Emkes approached Bandag Inc. chairman and CEO Martin Carver unsolicited to talk about combining their...

Pomini's future tied to the VIC - before H-F buyout, at least; Pomini is hoping its VIC technology can win orders in the tyre sector.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw Techint Pomini reported a turnover of around [euro]110 million in 2005, up from just [euro]40 million five years ago. The growth has come primarily from sales of equipment used to make steel rolls used in the steel and...

Prodicon concentrates on value for money; Prodicon offers a range of expertise and technology and has built its business in a typically Italian way, by outsourcing the manufacturing, but keeping the expertise in house.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw Prodicon International, tucked away in Milan's university district, is an enigma. In a world where globalisation, expansion and continuous growth are the watchwords of many financial controllers, the company has a...

Marangoni to use MTM to study strip winding; Marangoni hopes that its strip winding technology can bring it sales and profits in years to come.(Medical condition overview)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw Thanks to local government support, Marangoni SpA is getting a new technical centre at a bargain basement price. The company is spending up to [euro]16 million to build a new technical centre adjacent to its headquarters...

Peter Allen.(Obituary)
January 1, 2007... Byline: Kevin Jones Peter Allen died on Christmas Eve at the age of 81. He had been born into a legal family, and it must have been a surprise for them that he opted to study chemistry at Oxford, where he gained a first. His initial...

Per Hermansen.(Obituary)
January 1, 2007... Per K Hermansen died on 7 November 2006 at his home near Varnamo, Sweden, after several months of illness. He was 70 years old. Per spent his whole career in the rubber industry - in Norway, his country of birth, at Sande Fabrikker (now...

Oil prices fall sharply, rubber on the increase once more.(News)
January 1, 2007... Information We present here a series of charts and tables which are meant to give a snapshot of how the rubber industry is performing. The price of rubber on the Singapore commodity exchange is possibly the most important price in the...

Parliament approves Euro V, sets ground for Euro VI; New, more stringent emissions regulations are on the way, and diesels will be subject to tighter controls.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw Late in December, the European Parliament approved strict new emission laws (Euro V) for vehicles, but gave makers of SUVs a three-year reprieve. The new rules are likely to rubber-stamped by EU Member States during...

Copyright and copywrong.(Column)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw One of the perils of doing anything on the web is the lack of respect for copyright and other intellectual property. The recent flurry of writs landing on Google's doorstep after they bought YouTube shows just how rife...

Central European suppliers win big with Mercedes' new C class.(News)
January 1, 2007... Mercedes-Benz is shifting a sizeable portion of its sourcing for the next C class to eastern Europe, joining other automakers in an industrywide search for quality parts at a lower price. Mercedes will more than double its purchasing of...

REACH proposals pass into law, come into force from June; Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals legislation is due to come into force from June 2007, and rubber companies will have to comply by 2013, says ETRMA.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw In a vote at the end of December, members of the European Parliament took the REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) proposals into law. The regulation will enter into force progressively...

Trelleborg looks at future of Automotive unit; Poor profitability in automotive means Trelleborg may sell parts of the division - hoses are under special scrutiny.(News)
January 1, 2007... Byline: David Shaw Trelleborg AB is reviewing its automotive business, with special emphasis on the hose sector. Speaking at the company's capital markets day, Trelleborg president and CEO, Peter Nilsson said "A number of actions have been...

Briefs.(Epros)
January 1, 2007... Trelleborg combines business areas Trelleborg, Sweden - Trelleborg Building Systems business area will be combined with the Trelleborg Engineered Systems business area. The new Trelleborg Engineered Systems unit will have about 7000...

Goodyear to end tyre production at Quebec facility by Q2.(News)
January 1, 2007... Goodyear will discontinue tyre production at its Valleyfield, Quebec, plant, where it makes radial passenger and light truck tyres. The plan is to turn the 43-year-old site into a materials mixing centre by the end of the second quarter. This...

TTE Exhibitors: Part 2 of 2.(News)(Kautschuk Gesellschaft Group)(Konstrukta-Industry)
January 1, 2007... Kautschuk Gesellschaft Group Hall 7, Stand No. 2308, hall 7 info@kautschuk.com. The Kautschuk group has special expertise in products designed to improve adhesion between rubber and reinforcing fabrics. The company is the sole,...