PARIS—Michelin is sticking by its earlier 2013 earnings forecast despite lower sales in the third quarter, a worsening currency effect and a negative price-mix ratio during the period that ended Sept. 30. Michelin’s sales revenue fell 5.3 percent in the quarter to $6.92 billion despite a 2 percent rise in sales volumes. Michelin did not release earnings at this time, but said it expects to hit its fiscal 2013 goal of increasing its operating income…

(Reuters) – India’s tyre firms have stocked up on rubber at low prices, locking in healthy margins that have helped their share prices outperform those of international competitors over the past month. The two biggest gainers among the 59 tyre and rubber companies in the Thomson Reuters Global Index over that period were CEAT Ltd (CEAT.NS) and JK Tyre and Industries Ltd (JKIN.NS), which rose 51 percent and 39 percent respectively. Balkrishna Industries Ltd (BLKI.NS)…

ELOY, Ariz.—Bridgestone Americas Inc. has completed construction and setup of the Agro Operations Guayule Research Farm in Eloy. The site will supply guayule biomass for rubber production at Bridgestone’s BioRubber Process Research Center, which still is under construction in Mesa, Ariz., according to the company. Agro Operations includes a 281-acre research farm, two greenhouses, an equipment storage building and a main research and laboratory building, Bridgestone said. Researchers at the site will work on such…

Hankook Tire Co. (161390), South Korea’s biggest tiremaker, will invest $800 million to build its first factory in the U.S. as carmakers stay on track for a fifth straight year of growth. The plant will be located in Tennessee and have an annual production capacity of 11 million tires, according to an e-mailed statement by the Seoul-based company. The factory will be Hankook’s eighth manufacturing base globally and is scheduled to begin production in 2016,…

The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) has approved a 1.13-billion-baht plan to establish a “rubber city” in the southern province of Songkhla by 2016. Covering 755 rai, the project is the third phase of the planned 2,247-rai Southern Region Industrial Estate (SRIE). In the SRIE’s first phase, 60 rai are already available for sale from a total of 867 rai. In a 625-rai second phase, 351 rai have been developed. Michelin Siam Co, one…

World natural-rubber consumption is poised to increase this year and next, diminishing a surplus and boosting prices of the commodity used in tires, according to The Rubber Economist Ltd. The “surplus is now much smaller than before,” said Prachaya Jumpasut, managing director of the London-based industry adviser. Prices will probably climb to $3.3 a kilogram by the end of 2014 as stockpiles drop to a “relatively low” level versus consumption, his presentation showed. Ribbed smoked…

Top Glove Corp Bhd aims to corner 30 percent of the world’s nitrile glove segment which is expected to churn out 3 billion ringgit ($927.50 million) in revenue by December 2015. Its chairman Lim Wee Chai said the company currently controls 25 percent of the global share of synthetic gloves that is fast gaining popularity. “At the moment we have achieved 30 percent of the world rubber glove (segment) and now our team has set…

FINDLAY, Ohio (AP) — Cooper Tire & Rubber shareholders have approved its $2.2 billion acquisition by India’s Apollo Tyres Ltd. The deal, which was announced in June, gives Cooper stockholders $35 per share in cash. The companies valued the transaction at about $2.5 billion. Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. said Monday that more than 74 percent of its outstanding common stock voted in favor of the deal. Both companies’ boards unanimously approved the transaction, which…

Business Intervention in the price of natural rubber could force domestic tyre producers to use more synthetic rubber. Chaiyasit Samrittivanicha, the managing director of ND Rubber Co, said both types of rubber can be used to produce tyres depending on the requirements of specific producers. The prices of both types were close until about three years ago, when demand from China and India drove up the price of natural rubber. But the economic crisis in…