Rumors that Goodyear was permanently closing plants kept the PR team in Akron hopping earlier this week.
In fact, what Goodyear – and Cooper and Bridgestone/Firestone and Michelin – were all doing was suspending production. Some plants saw shifts eliminated, others were closed for brief periods.
Why? Well, the convenient truth is that North American producers were seeing a raw material shortfall – primarily synthetic rubber – thanks to the damage caused by Hurricane Ike and Gustov. Truth is, petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana were damaged and some are still not completely back on-stream.
The other truth is this: Tiremakers have had to burn off inventory. Thanks to the dramatic – and chilling – slowdown at the retail tire counter, warehouses were getting a bit clogged. So, thanks to an odd confluence of events, tiremakers had an added reason to turn down the production tap.
The devastation along the Gulf Coast was very, very real, as post-hurricane video and pictures will show. Unbelievable and sad.
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– Jim Smith
