FRANKFURT, Germany—Continental A.G. management expects to report improved operating income in the first quarter on 3- to 4-percent higher sales, CEO Elmar Degenhart told a gathering of business media today in Frankfurt. The company’s start leaves management “confident as regards the outlook for fiscal 2014,” Degenhart said, noting that Conti expects global demand for consumer and commercial vehicles to rise about 2 percent this year. Conti’s goal for 2014 is 5-percent sales growth, he said….

OVERCAPACITY is a term used very much in the glove industry these days. That and rising costs of production. In fact, the industry has been wrought by more negativity than “positivity” in the past couple of years, a different scenario compared to years ago when competition was much less. Hartalega Holdings Bhd probably knows this better than anyone else as the company is pretty much one of the most technologically advanced glove makers globally and…

s official entry into service. As Shandong Linglong’s first overseas manufacturing facility, the products manufactured by the plant in Thailand’s Rayong province (about 90 miles/150 kilometers east of Bangkok) are considered to be of strategic importance to the Linglong tire brand’s future development. Shandong Linglong announced it had purchased land for the greenfield factory project in October 2012 and the company says it went “from nothing” at the site to completion within one year. Production…

The global production of Natural Rubber (NR) in 2014 would be 12.1 million tonnes, according to estimates by the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG). According to the same estimates, world consumption of NR in 2014 would be 11.9 million tonnes, with a surplus of 0.2 million tonnes. Global production and consumption of NR in 2013 was 11.7 million and 11.3 million tonnes respectively, with a surplus of 0.4 million tones. World production and consumption of NR grew…

KOCHI, India, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Global rubber prices will bottom out in the next 6-12 months as demand from top buyer China could return following an expected run down of its stockpiles, the head of commodity trader Olam International said on Thursday. Global rubber prices are near their lowest levels in several years on worries about a slowing economy in China, forcing the world’s top natural rubber producers to consider joint action to support…

Rubber stockpiles in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are low and may decline further when the low-production season starts, said a group of top suppliers, asking members to refrain from cutting prices. Futures gained. Inventories available for sale in the three countries are “low contrary to what is being reported in the media,” International Rubber Consortium Ltd., a unit of a group that comprises government officials, growers and exporters, said after a Feb. 8 meeting. The…

SINGAPORE: The International Rubber Consortium (IRCo), which represents rubber producers of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, has recommended its members should not sell natural rubber at the current low prices. Physical rubber prices on Singapore’s SICOM exchange are close to their weakest since 2009, while Indonesia’s SIR20, usually the cheapest tyre grade in Southeast Asia, is trading around its lowest in five years. “The recent sharp fall in natural rubber prices has resulted in natural rubber…

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Cambodia has 325,900 hectares of rubber plantations as of last year, up 16 percent compared with 280,350 hectares in a year earlier, a report of the Ministry of Agriculture showed. Some 78,444 hectares of them are old enough to be yielded, the report said, adding that the country collected 90,000 tons of rubber resin last year. The ministry predicted that rubber plantations would reach 450, 000 hectares by 2020 and could…

THE world’s top natural rubber producers are considering joint action to support prices, a year after a similar attempt failed, as tyre grades dip to five-year lows on worries about a slowing economy in China. Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, which together account for more than 70 per cent of global natural rubber output, are examining whether to curb exports, reduce tapping or buy the commodity from farmers in a coordinated fashion to reverse the price…

Kumho Tire USA Inc. reported a 13% increase in operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2013 from a dip in raw material prices. The company said operating profit reached $91.7 million, up from last year’s numbers. Its sales edged up 0.2% to 87.5 billion South Korean won tallied for the year before. Its sales edged up 0.2% to 929.2 billion South Korean won from 927.2 billion South Korean won reported for the fourth quarter…