AKRON, Ohio., March 29 -- PRNewswire/AsiaNet
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is looking to "tap" into several new proprietary synthetic rubber products it has developed that could help the company reduce its natural rubber dependency by as much as 15 percent over the next few years.
"We've been working on these polymers for some time," said Joseph M. Gingo, Goodyear executive vice president for quality systems and chief technical officer, "but recent natural rubber price volatility, that has shown no signs of subsiding soon, created a sense of urgency for our research and development people."
Among all of the world's tire and rubber product producers, Goodyear has long been considered a leader in synthetic rubber development capability.
According to Gingo, "In addition to the cost impact, another significant aspect of the new developments is that they will allow us to use more synthetic rubber in truck tires while we maintain or exceed our product quality expectations."
The last two years have seen world natural rubber prices climb steadily as demand has increased. Most industry observers expect the prices to continue upward through 2004.
"After just going through a very difficult economic period as an industry, we felt at Goodyear that we could ill afford to sit back and hope that relief in the form of lower natural rubber prices would come along," said Goodyear's Gary A. Miller, vice president and chief procurement officer.
"While our newly developed synthetic rubber products do not totally solve raw material cost concerns, we have gained for ourselves greater flexibility," he added.
"That flexibility not only will help cushion us against future natural rubber price volatility, but also provides us with a competitive advantage," Miller said.
Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 85 facilities in 28 countries around the world, and employs about 88,000 people worldwide.
Certain information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Additional factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are discussed in the company's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2002, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2003, and Form 8-K dated Feb. 11, 2004, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our estimates only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.
SOURCE: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
CONTACT: Ron Maulsby of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company,
+1-330-796-1136
Web site: http://www.goodyear.com
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