2013 Year in Review: July through September

Higher demand prompts Dayco Products L.L.C. to spend $2 million to expand an automotive components factory in Williston, S.C.

The SI Group Inc.-Sino Legend (Zhangjiagang) Chemical Co. Ltd. trade secrets dispute over rubber resins continues, each winning a court case in their home countries.

Rubber parts maker RSP Inc. opens its third facility in China.

Another round of battles over the polyurethane curative methyl-bischloroaniline, commonly called MOCA, could be on the horizon.

Private equity company Wind Point Partners acquires thermoplastic urethane film maker Argotec.

Michelin North America Inc. takes the title as the top rubber product maker in North America based on 2012 sales in the latest ranking by Rubber & Plastics News.

ContiTech A.G. acquires its first belt factory in the U.S., via the purchase of Halstead, Kan.-based Legg Company Inc. by ContiTech's Conveyor Belt Group, headquartered in Germany.

Arsenal Capital Partners makes its third rubber industry acquisition in two months, buying ADCO Global Inc., a maker of adhesives, sealants, tapes and coatings.

Contract negotiations heat up for the United Steelworkers union and three tire makers as the July 27 deadline approaches.

Sealing systems and component manufacturer Hamilton Kent Inc. celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Firestone Industrial Products L.L.C. launches a $2.7 million expansion at its air springs facility in Wolsztyn, Poland.

Carlisle Companies Inc. explores the potential sale of its Transportation Products segment because it doesn't meet the company's profit margin targets.

Regupol America begins an expansion of its U.S. headquarters in Lebanon, Pa.

Michelin recalls 100,000 light truck and SUV tires because some may have sidewall perforations that could cause air loss.

A rubber compounding plant operated by Valley Processing Inc. opens at the former Rubatex site in Bedford, Va.

ContiTech A.G. begins an expansion at its vibration control factory in Slovakia, adding a research and development center to the site.

Fenner Dunlop Australia spends $22.7 million on a new steel cord press line at a conveyor belt factory near Perth, Australia.

Cooper Standard Automotive Inc. acquires the automotive sealing business of Jyco Sealing Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

BRC Rubber & Plastics Inc. plans to move its headquarters and technical center to Fort Wayne, Ind., and in the process create room to expand manufacturing at its Churubusco, Ind., factory.

Safety is the primary topic of conversation during the Association of Rubber Products Manufacturers Environmental, Health and Safety Summit, held in Jackson, Tenn.

More than 5,000 workers at a Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. joint venture plant in Rongcheng, China, go on strike to protest the proposed sale of Cooper to Apollo Tyres Ltd.

Ashland Inc. puts up for sale its styrene-butadiene rubber business, which includes a 250-employee plant in Port Neches, Texas.

The United Steelworkers union reaches tentative labor agreements with Goodyear, Michelin North America Inc.'s BF Goodrich Tire unit and Bridgestone Americas Inc. The union members later ratify the deals.

Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. plans to expand its factory in White, Ga., boosting the site's capacity to a level needed to handle growing demand for Toyo tires in North America.

The Ashe County, N.C., belting plant of Gates Corp. gets the pink slip, and will cost 239 workers their jobs when it closes by the first quarter of 2014.

HF Mixing Group launches a consolidation of its entire batch mixing machinery business to Topeka, Kan.

Omnova Solutions Inc. begins a project to diversify and upgrade its Mogadore, Ohio, styrene-butadiene latex operation, and also decides to relocate its headquarters from Fairlawn, Ohio, to another Northeast Ohio city, Beachwood.

Emerald Performance Materials L.L.C. begins building a pilot plant in Akron to focus on the firm's Nychem line of nitrile and butadiene emulsion products.

Bridgestone Corp. marks the 25th anniversary of its purchase of Firestone for $2.6 billion.

Grand River Rubber & Plastics Co. buys the belting division of Icon Polymer Ltd.

The distribution segment of Kaman Corp. acquires Western Fluid Components Inc., a full-time distributor for the Parker Hannifin Corp. fluid connector group.

Vibracoustic CV Air Springs GmbH considers setting up a manufacturing facility for air springs in North America.

For the eighth time in 2013, Arsenal Capital Partners buys a company, this time International Fiber Corp., a supplier to the rubber industry.

Three years after the Association of Rubber Products Manufacturers formed when non-tire members split from the Rubber Manufacturers Association, both report progress.

C.R. Bard agrees to buy Rochester Medical Inc., maker of silicone medical goods, for $262 million.

Flexitech Group opens an automotive brake hose plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, that will help ease capacity concerns at a facility in France and serve as its hose construction factory for the Americas.

Bridgestone Americas sues TRW Automotive Inc. and a subsidiary for alleged infringement of its tire pressure monitoring system patents.

The International Trade Commission votes to investigate a complaint by Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. that 22 tire manufacturers, importers and sellers are infringing on Toyo's design patents.

Kumho Tire USA Inc. plans to resume construction of a tire plant in Macon, Ga., that has been on hold since May 2008.

AirBoss of America Corp.'s rubber compounding business adds equipment at its upgraded Scotland Neck, N.C., plant.

An arbitrator rules Apollo Tyres Ltd. must reach collective bargaining agreements with United Steelworkers union locals at two Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. plants before it can proceed with its acquisition of Cooper.

The United Steelworkers union holds meetings with employees at the Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. factory in Tupelo, Miss., in an attempt to unionize the 1,300 workers.

The International Trade Commission plans to review a decision of an administrative law judge to institute a 10-year ban on certain rubber tackifier resin imports made by Sino Legend (Zhangjiagang) Chemical Co. Ltd.

Coming Monday: Year in Review: October through December.