TBC Corporation has appointed Bill Schafer to the role of Chief Operating Officer for TBC Brands and TBC International. Schafer will report directly to TBC Corporation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Kato, and will oversee all TBC Brands and TBC International sales initiatives, including customer service, commercial tire sales, equipment and non-tire sales, and operations.

TechnoBiz is accepting delegate registrations for the upcoming “RUBBER WEEK 2024” during 22-26 April 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand at Century Park Hotel. It has 3 specialized conferences and 9 short training courses aimed for rubber industry professionals across the world. Participants can choose either in-person participation or online participation. Leading rubber industry specialists are presenting papers and short courses that are addressing current needs of the rubber industry. Engaging discussion sessions are planned as part of the conference program.

Volker Cwielong has been a member of the management team of the globally present Eberspächer Group since 2017. As Co-CEO of the Purem by Eberspächer division, he was responsible for net sales of some EUR 2 billion and for more than 7’000 employees at over 40 locations on three continents. He led the sales, production, technology and innovation units and had full responsibility for the division’s results. Before, Volker Cwielong held various global management positions for international industrial groups and automotive suppliers. Volker Cwielong is a mechanical engineer and holds an MBA.

Dow has formulated a breakthrough option of polyolefin elastomers (POE) based artificial leather – a solution to address the automotive industry’s need to shift towards increasingly animal-free product alternatives to leather.

The POE alternative leather option has been commercialized by HIUV Materials Technology, a China-based partner and qualified by an electric car manufacturer in their auto seatings application.

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that it has begun delivering tires to Subaru Corporation for use as original equipment (OE) on the automaker’s new Impreza. The new Impreza cars to be sold in Europe and the Latin America will be fitted with ADVAN Sport V105 tires (size 225/40R18 92W).

Automobile associations such as the German ADAC and ACE, and motoring magazines including “AutoBild”, “AutoBild Reisemobil”, “Autozeitung”, “auto motor und sport” and “sportauto” were all on the same page: The PremiumContact 7 from Continental is a winner, coming out on top in their tests and rankings. And the summer tire produced by the development experts in Hanover also led the way for car magazines in Great Britain, Scandinavia and Poland. Ratings were spread between “exemplary”, “highly recommended” and “outstanding”, with 15 of 16 publications naming the PremiumContact 7 in first place. Its impressive strengths in terms of safety played a particularly prominent role in achieving these top placings; the PremiumContact 7 posted significantly shorter braking distances than its competitors on wet and dry asphalt. And the ADAC also rated it highly in terms of environmental impact, thanks to its strong mileage capability.