2013 Year in Review: October through December

October

AirBoss of America Corp. announces it will buy automotive anti-vibration products maker Flexible Products Co.

Megadyne S.p.A. purchases Turkish conveyor belt maker Rultrans Transmisyon A.S.

Aiming to expand its presence as a rubber product maker, Wabtec Corp. buys Longwood Industries Inc.

Lanxess A.G. restructures and labels its rubber chemicals’ accelerators and antioxidants lines, nitrile-butadiene rubber business and other operations as “non-core,” subject to “strategic options.”

A European court rejects DuPont and Dow Chemical Co.’s appeal of fines for price-fixing of chloroprene rubber.

Construction of a $300 million truck and bus tire plant in Mississippi by Yokohama Tire Corp. begins.

Yamashita Rubber Co. Ltd. is among 20 companies that plead guilty to price-fixing of auto parts.

The International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers agrees to exchange market information with the China Synthetic Rubber Industry Association.

Chinese tire manufacturer Giti Tire Pte. decides to launch tire technical centers in Akron and Hanover, Germany.

Passaic Rubber Co. adds machinery to upgrade its operations.

The sale of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. to Apollo Tyres Ltd. goes to court, with Cooper claiming Apollo is trying to renege on the $2.5 billion deal.

Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. selects a site in Clarksville, Tenn., for its first U.S. tire plant.

Chem Technologies Ltd. begins an addition that will give the company its eighth mixing line.

Bridgestone Americas announces an expansion of its truck and bus tire plant in Warren, Tenn.

Toyoda Gosei Co. launches construction of a hose factory in Mexico.

A $41 million price will net Ansell Ltd. industrial glove maker Midas C. Ltd. when it is completed before the end of the year.

Steelastic Co. L.L.C. begins building a new headquarters in Akron.

A change in market demand prompts Michelin North America Inc. to put 1 percent of its Tuscaloosa, Ala., plant staff on indefinite layoff.

Bridgestone Americas completes construction of a guayule research center in Eloy, Ariz.

Portage Precision Polymers Inc. moves into silicone mixing via a new plant.

Dow Chemical Co. chooses a site in Plaquemine, La., for a Nordel-brand EPDM rubber factory.

Alan Roberts, known as a leader in fundamental research in rubber physics, particularly contact phenomena, is named the 2014 Charles Goodyear Medalist by the ACS Rubber Division.

Zinc Oxide L.L.C. starts up, intending to fill a void when Horsehead Corp. closes a zinc oxide facility this year.

The FBI, Cleveland Police Department and other law enforcement agencies investigate a theft of equipment at the Alpha Technologies U.S. L.P. booth at the ACS Rubber Division exhibition in Cleveland.

November

Carlisle Companies Inc. finds a buyer for its transportation products business, private equity firm American Industrial Partners.

Goodyear and United Steelworkers locals at six tire plants reach contract deals.

Hose and belt maker Tristone Flowtech Group GmbH adds an engineering and sales operation in Detroit.

Semperit A.G. wins a $138 million conveyor belt contract with German utility company RWE Power A.G.

Applied Silicone Corp. completes the first stage of expansions at its factory and warehouse operations in Santa Paula, Calif.

Chinese machinery maker Mesnac Co. Ltd. buys majority control of Test Measurement Systems Inc. The firm opens a research and technical center in Akron.

Titan International Inc. enters a joint venture tire reclaiming business.

Medical molder MedPlast Inc. invests in a plant in China to expand its capabilities into silicone, extrusion and blow molding.

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. and Ceat Ltd. announce tire plant expansions in India.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge rejects Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.’s claim that Apollo Tyres Ltd. has breached its merger agreement with the American tire maker.

For the second time in two years, Advanced Molding Technologies Ltd. expands.

Maurice Taylor Jr. reports his company, Titan Tire International Inc., still is considering buying Goodyear’s Amiens (France) North facility.

Bridgestone Corp. recalls 1.2 million truck and bus tires.

Rehau A.G. + Co.’s North American operation plans to build an automotive technical center in Alabama.

Hexpol Compounding launches two plant expansions in Mexico.

Supplier Vanderbilt Chemicals L.L.C. plans to consolidate production for its Bethel, Conn., factory to a newly upgraded facility in Murray, Ky.

Bridgestone Corp. moves to reorganize its automotive parts operations in China and build a factory in Mexico.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. reaches tentative contract agreements with the United Steelworkers union local in Clarksdale, Miss.

December

Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. pleads guilty and will pay a $120 million fine for two separate conspiracies to fix prices of anti-vibration rubber and driveshaft parts, the Department of Justice reported.

Finzer Roller Inc. buys the assets of S.I. Industries Inc. to broaden its capabilities and geographic reach.

Cabot Corp. completes the purchase of 100 percent of its Nhumo S.A. de C.V. carbon black joint venture in Mexico. The firm also agrees to pay a $975,000 civil penalty and spend more than $84 million to control air pollution at three Texas and Louisiana carbon black facilities.

Guayule rubber developer Yulex Corp. enters into a collaboration with agricultural biotechnology company SGB Inc.

The International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers announces that JSR Corp.’s Yoshinori Yoshida will receive the group’s General Award and Claude Janin, retired from Michelin, the Technical Award during its annual meeting next May.

Agribusiness firm PanAridus L.L.C. plans to expand into a new facility in Casa Grande, Ariz.

Custom rubber mixer Infinity Rubber Technology Group Inc. will move its operations from Toronto to Welland, Ontario. The firm also said a nearly four-year strike by the United Steelworkers ended this past summer.

Neil De Koker prepares to retire from the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, a group he founded 15 years ago.

Czech tire maker Mitas A.S. starts production of radial farmand off-road tires at its new plant in Otrokovice, Czech Republic.

James Hawk, chairman of Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas, is chosen as Rubber & Plastics News’ Rubber Industry Executive of the Year.

Source: rubbernews.com