Good day to you all, as you wearily trudge back to the airport with a big smile on your face. That is, if you were free to go to SEMA this year. I was not. There was too much work waiting for me here, and if I can’t go, who says anyone else from our company gets to attend?
I did get to follow the proceedings, with great interest, by checking out a myriad of tire news sources and blogs. Mostly, I used Twitter to check out the hot, the interesting, and the just plain odd. (If you want to know more about how to use Twitter effectively, with an emphasis on the tire business, head over to our “Tire Videos” page, and watch “Twitter for the Tire Industry: Parts 1 and 2″.) Guess what? Since I didn’t get to go, I’m going to leave the coverage to others who did.
Here are a few links, so you can catch up: Tire Review, Modern Tire Dealer, Tire Business, Jalopnik.
They were there, I was not. End of story. Now, on to the week’s news.
First up, just to get some news out, Modern Tire Dealer is reporting that the Chinese Tire Tariffs are already beginning to cause tire shortages and higher prices. We said this was going to be bad for the consumer, in “The Real Reasons Behind Chinese Tire Tariffs“. Now, Saul Ludwig is going to explain why, in the November issue of MTD.
Next up, some lighter news comes to us, via Jalopnik. They did a little post called “The Hoverounds of SEMA“. I can’t help but note the irony of the situation. They’ve got every other vehicle there. C’mon, Segways are the ultimate geek toy, they should be having a modified Segway parade, or something.
For a show about wheels, and accessories, there's an awful lot of discrimination going on.
In “I gotta get me one of these.” news, check this out (via Crunchgear and Neatorama):
DC Shoes cofounder Ken Block teamed up with Subaru to make this beast come to life. I wish I could replace the wheels on my truck with tracks. Unfortunately, we don’t get enough snow around here to justify the expense.
On to more serious news. Gold shot up overnight to $1100 an ounce. Why? Well, India made a huge gold buy earlier this week from the IMF. How much? 200 tons. That cost them a cool 6.7 Billion dollars, and it was money well spent. They paid $1045 an oz. two full days ago. India, in addition to China has ensured that their financial status as a nation will remain intact for quite awhile. This was quite the coup, and I’ll leave it to a fellow operating under the pseudonym of John Galt to tell you why. This should be able to persuade the mines to add a few shifts.
Speaking of mining and China jogs my memory a bit. I don’t know if anyone else remembers it or not, but we were covering the case of Stern Hu and other employees of Rio Tinto. They were arrested for stealing state secrets, accused of bribery, and sent to bed without supper. None of them have been brought to trial yet. Stern Hu will stand trial within the next 10 days or so. According to The Age (Australia), some good, old-fashioned, bureaucratic wrangling has been going on in the background. The outcome of this powergrab may well affect Hu’s fate, along with the rest of Rio’s detained employees.
I am anxiously awaiting the charges and evidence brought forth here, as I may have my first opportunity to apologize to the Chinese government. You don’t get to say that very often, and the punditry at-large seems to think there was a concrete reason to arrest this man.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for some very special features we are working on. They are guaranteed to help all of you understand your customers, and grow your business, even(and especially) during the rough times.
That’s all for now. Keep checking in for the latest in tire and mining news (or sign up to get updates in your email. Over there, on the right hand side. That’s it.) Until next time, we’ll be…
Signing off…
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