HANOVER, Germany—Continental A.G. expects sales in 2013 to grow about 5 percent to $44 billion as business picks up in the second half to offset anticipated first quarter sales decline of 1 to 3 percent, according to CEO Elmar Degenhart. Conti also expects to report adjusted earnings before interest and taxes ratio of better than 10 percent, on par with fiscal 2012. The company is basing its forecast on 2-percent growth in global production of…

MUMBAI: India has been considering raising import duty on natural rubber and the notification regarding the hike would be issued soon, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said on Thursday. “We have sent our recommendation for hiking the duty and a notification would be issued soon,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event without elaborating quantum of the hike. India, the world’s fourth largest rubber producer, could increase import duties on natural rubber by…

Top Glove Corp Bhd posted a RM51.32 million net profit for its second quarter ended February 28, 2013 against RM54.19 million in the same period last year. Revenue for the quarter was RM576.41 million from 548.99 million in the same period last year. Top Glove recorded five per cent revenue growth to RM1.16 billion in the first half of its financial year ended February 28, 2013 from RM1.1 billion. Its net profit was 27 per…

Malaysia’s natural rubber (NR) production rose by 15.3 per cent to 87,957 tonnes in January from December last year, the Statistics Department said today. NR production for January also rose 3.3 percent from the same period last year. The department said a total of 93.1 percent of NR production was contributed by the smallholdings sector and the remaining 6.9 percent by estates. The highest producer of NR on estates was Kedah (23 per cent), followed…

Italian tire maker Pirelli & C. SpA (PPAMF, PC.MI) Monday met expectations in posting a 44% jump in operating profit on slightly higher sales in the fourth quarter, as its focus on cutting costs, expanding in emerging markets and focusing on premium products compensated for weak demand in Europe. Pirelli, which slightly missed some of its targets for the entire year, said its board had proposed a more than 10% increase to its dividend on…

China’s passenger-vehicle market had its strongest start since 2010, while sales in India shrank for a third month, illustrating the contrast in automobile demand in the world’s two most populous nations. China’s wholesale deliveries of cars, multipurpose and sport-utility vehicles, rose 20 percent to 2.84 million units in January and February, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. India’s passenger vehicle deliveries in the same period fell 11 percent to 468,914 units, according to…

Bridgestone Corp. announced that Bridgestone Europe will close its passenger car tire production facility in Modugno (Bari), Italy. The plant is fully owned by Bridgestone Italia S.p.A., a 100% subsidiary of Bridgestone Europe. The Bari plant is one of eight Bridgestone tire plants in Europe – the other facilities are located in Spain, France, Poland and Hungary. “The decision follows an in-depth analysis of the structural changes which have taken place over the last two…

GENEVA, Switzerland—Bridgestone Corp. is turning back the clock on tire design to achieve lower rolling resistance without compromising other performance criteria. Bridgestone’s latest development in the fuel-efficiency sweepstakes, being displayed at the Geneva Auto Salon this week, is the “large and narrow”” concept tire, a 155/55R19 designed to operate at higher air pressures. The tire maker claims the large/narrow design, coupled with the use of the “most appropriate” materials, yields a roughly 30-percent reduction in…

KUALA LUMPUR: Supermax Corp Bhd expects total sales from emerging markets to increase by 10 per cent in one or two years from six per cent currently. Executive chairman and group managing director Datuk Seri Stanley Thai said demand from the healthcare industry will drive sales. “Emerging markets such as China, India, Russia and Brazil have a huge population base with still relatively underdeveloped healthcare standards. “These countries are rich but they neglected healthcare in…

WASHINGTON—U.S. production of consumer and commercial tires last year fell 5.6 percent, according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association’s 2013 Tire Industry Factbook. Production of car, light truck and medium/heavy truck tires dropped 5.6 percent to 161.9 million units, the lowest annual total in the past 20 years. It also comes after production rebounded in 2010 and 2011 from a nine-year slide, the RMA data show. The falloff in production parallels declines in replacement market shipments…