Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. recently announced the creation of a sales office in Moscow, Russia. “Russia holds great opportunity as Cooper continues to build our customer base throughout the region,” said Jeff Schumaker, managing director for Cooper Tire Europe. “With the acquisition of the Cooper Serbia production facility in Kruševac, Serbia, which began operating just over a year ago, Cooper products can be brought to the market and better meet customer needs through the…

Sumitomo Rubber Industries hosted the groundbreaking ceremony for its first tire factory in Turkey on Sept. 18. The factory, Sumitomo Rubber AKO Lastik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (SAT), will be located in the country’s Cankiri Province. The plant represents an investment of $500 million. Once completed, the factory will cover 1,000,000 square meters, and by 2019 the plant will produce 30,000 tires a day. Production is slated to start in July 2015. The plant is…

Could JK Tyre & Industries be the next Indian tyre maker to broaden its geographic footprint? Speaking with The Economic Times, company chairman and managing director Dr. Raghupati Singhania said that following the integration of Mexican tyre maker Tornel into the company, JK Tyres has “encountered some interesting propositions for possible opportunities of acquisition to catapult into a global entity.” Singhania told the financial daily that JK Tyre is considering both potential acquisitions and new…

Rubber smells Natural rubber stinks. Once it has been bled from the rubber tree and begins to coagulate, degradation processes kick in to produce a range of malodorous compounds which pollute the air within processing plants and the local neighbourhood, as well as water released by the plant. The smell is produced whether the latex is allowed to coagulate naturally or is treated to accelerate coagulation. However, the strength of the bad odour depends on…

 Kochi, Sep 23:The rubber industry, represented by the All-India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA), has urged the Government for formulating a national policy on rubber on the lines of national policies for petroleum, textiles and information technology. In his report issued along with the annual report of AIRIA, Niraj Thakkar, President, AIRIA, said that rubber is a sunrise industry with immense potential for growth. A national policy on rubber is critical to optimise the potential of…

Tire makers worldwide budgeted more than $8 billion in capital expenditures in the past year toward new and expanded capacities. The figure is down from the record $10 billion in 2011-12, but still the fourth largest 12 month total in more than 20 years. Add in Apollo Tyres Ltd.’s $2.5 billion bid to acquire Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., the amount would be a record of more than $10.5 billion. Michelin and Hankook Tire Co….

Apollo Tyres Ltd has bitten the price-hike bullet. The company increased tyre prices by around 1% last week, Satish Sharma, chief of India operations, said in an emailed response. The raises will provide the much needed comfort for investors, as supply constraints have been driving up domestic rubber prices, the key raw material for tyre makers. Compared with the first quarter, prices in the domestic market are higher by 12%. From a year ago, they…

Kuan Kam Hon saw the need for rubber gloves during the early years of the AIDs epidemic. At the time, health-care workers and others were increasingly using the gloves to protect themselves against the virus and other infectious diseases. So Kuan turned his stagnating woven-label and badge manufacturing plant into a maker of latex gloves. The decision has made Kuan, 66, a billionaire. His Kuala Lumpur-based company, Hartalega Holdings Bhd., has soared 56 percent this…

See why it bought PT Golden Energi. Natural rubber producer Halcyon Agri Corporation Limited today announced that it has signed a term sheet to acquire PT Golden Energi, an Indonesian natural rubber producer, for US$7 million. PT Golden Energi is located in Sumatra’s Jambi province, one of the top 5 natural rubber exporting regions in Indonesia and the neighbouring province to South Sumatra, where Halcyon Agri’s existing operations are situated. It produces SIR20 grade rubber…

Hankook Tire Co. opened a global plant yesterday in Lippo Cikarang, Bekasi, West Java. “Today’s commemoration of Indonesia plant opening marks yet another milestone in Hankook Tire’s ongoing growth as a global top-tier tire company. This is also a clear manifestation of our strong will and commitment for further growth together with Indonesia and other emerging economies,” said Mr. Seung Hwa Suh, vice chairman and CEO of Hankook Tire. Hankook’s newest global plant, and its…