The U.S. presidential election isn't the only thing that happened in the world in 2012—really.

In the rubber industry there was plenty of action, ranging from numerous capacity increases by tire manufacturers, to a strong showing by the automotive component sector, to ownership changes by a variety of companies.

Here are some of 2012's highlights.

January

Bridgestone Americas Inc. puts the finishing touches on its new technical center in Akron, which it will move into in February.

Rubber Product Manuafacturers Association officials expect little legislative action during the presidential election year.

A federal appeals court in Washington rules the U.S. Commerce Department didn't have the authority in 2008 to impose countervailing duties on certain off-the-road tires from China.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. continues to lock out United Steelworkers Local 207L at its factory in Findlay, Ohio. The union descends on 150 tire dealers to inform the public about the labor dispute.

Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. plans to spend $8 million to expand rubber compounding capacity at its race tire plant in Plymouth, Ind.

Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. buys the automotive sealing business of Sigit S.p.A. to solidify its base globally and enhance its opportunities for growth.

Associated Rubber & Mechanical Inc. caps off four years of dramatic growth by moving to double the size of its plant in Salt Lake City to handle a larger work load and increase production capacity.

February

Workers at Cooper Tire's Texar-kana, Ark., tire plant ratify a four-year contract by an eight-to-one margin. Talks resume between the Steelworkers and the company at the locked-out Findlay, Ohio, factory, and on Feb. 27 the three-month dispute ends when a five-year contract is ratified.

Recycled rubber products manufacturer Ecore International Inc. opens a 500,000-sq.-ft. factory in York, Pa.

Sil-Pro L.L.C. purchases a facility adjacent to its current plant to house an expanded tooling department, a move that also frees space for additional operations at its original factory.

Titan Tire Corp. plans to bring the sprawling Union City, Tenn., tire plant it purchased from Goodyear back to life.

Veyance Technologies Canada Inc. gives its Owen Sound, Ontario, facility the pink slip because of excess capacity problems.

Mitas Tires North America Inc. prepares to launch production of radial tires at its first plant in the U.S., located in Charles City, Iowa.

Trelleborg A.B. decides to sell its light-vehicle components business in France to a German company.

Eastman Chemical Co. agrees to acquire rubber chemicals producer Solutia Inc.  

AirBoss of America Corp. plans to spend $9 million to significantly boost its rubber mixing and protective products operations.

Precix Inc. nears the end of a three-year, $10 million investment program to update its equipment and add capacity.

Precision molder and contract manufacturer GW Plastics Inc. expects to complete an expansion in Royalton, Vt., soon, and makes progress on finishing construction of a factory in Costa Rica.

The European Union rejects appeals by DuPont Co., Dow Chemical Co. and Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. against fines imposed by the EU for their participation in a cartel to fix prices of polychloroprene rubber.

An Atlanta federal court judge sanctions Michelin North America Inc. and its attorneys for alleged bad faith conduct in an ongoing product liability case involving a Uniroyal Laredo tire.

Custom rubber mixer Robbins L.L.C. upgrades its capabilities at its three factories by adding machinery and increasing capacity.

The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration cites rubber mixer Polymerics Inc. with four safety violations after a 2011 accident in which a worker's hand is amputated.

March

Kevin Coleman, former CEO of Latex International L.L.C., pleads guilty to embezzling about $1.7 million from the company and evading federal income taxes for four years.

Carlisle Companies Inc. plans to purchase Hertalan Holding B.V. of the Netherlands to expand the size and capabilities of its growing single-ply rubber roofing operation in Europe.

Eaton Corp. agrees to acquire Turkish hose maker Polimer Kaucuk San-ayhi ve Pazarlama A.S. 

Ansell Ltd. executives report the company is rebounding from problems it experienced with a new business processing system.

Tristone Flowtech Group, GmbH's engine hose and systems factory in Delicias, Mexico, purchased in July 2011, starts operations.

In Maryland, a bill concerning tire aging sparks accusations against the tire manufacturing industry at a legislative hearing. The bill later dies.

Park-Ohio Industries Inc. purchases hose maker Fluid Routing Solutions Inc. as a vehicle for growth and a "value acquisition."

Rapra Ltd. and Smithers Rapra Technology Ltd. don't renew a five-year cooperative agreement that expired.

Cooper Tire and Yulex Corp. agree to collaborate in developing a tire-grade rubber from the desert shrub guayule.

Gates Corp. decides to close its hose factory in Charleston, Mo., which employs about 125, and move production to its Galesburg, Ill., plant, where it will add 87 people to its staff.

Specialty Tires of America Inc. announces it will spend $1.5 million during the next three years to upgrade its Indiana, Pa., factory and accommodate expanded radial tire capacity.

An appeals court overturns $2 million in fines against Dayton Tire & Rubber Co., dating back to a 1994 fatal accident at a now-closed factory in Oklahoma City.

Thermoplastic polyurethane product maker Biomerics L.L.C. expands its Salt Lake City, Utah, facility.

Hose makers get in on the drilling boom for natural gas in the Marcellus formation in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest.

April

Trelleborg embarks on a number of expansions in North America and Europe, with its Trelleborg Sealing Solutions division in the forefront.

Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH acquires Tire Curing Bladders L.L.C. to strengthen its Lanxess A.G. subsidiary's position as a tire industry supplier.

Xiaorong Wang, a former senior scientist and project leader at Bridgestone Americas' research center in Akron, is charged with stealing trade secrets, but in October all federal charges are dropped.

French Oil Mill Machinery Co. declares it has no business relationship with competitor Dal-ian Tiansheng General Machinery Co. Ltd. and wants the equipment manufacturer to quit implying it does.

Rogan Corp. opens a Class 7 clean room at its Northbrook, Ill., factory to boost its liquid silicone rubber operations.

Medical device maker and extruder Molded Rubber and Plastic Corp. buys custom silicone molder ETI Inc.

Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C. breaks ground on a tire plant in Sumter, S.C.

Michelin North America Inc. plans to invest $750 million to once again significantly expand its manufacturing base in South Carolina.

Bridgestone Golf Inc. sets out to increase golf ball production capacity at its Covington, Ga., factory.

Novaflex Group moves to a new industrial hose plant.

Trelleborg sells its high-technology protective products business to Ansell Ltd. for about $32 million.

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. adds two clean rooms and a laboratory to its Scottsdale, Ariz., plant.

H.B. Fuller Co. decides to cut 150 jobs and close seven plants after absorbing its recently acquired Forbo Group.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley brags about her state's new status as the biggest tire-manufacturing state in the U.S. in a speech at the Clemson Tire Industry Conference.

May

C. Michael Roland of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory receives the ACS Rubber Division Charles Good-year Medal.

Bridgestone Americas launches its fourth expansion project in an eight-month span, an addition to its Bloomington, Ill., off-the road tire plant.

Puma Polymers L.L.C. increases its production capacity.

Two years after entering the North American sector, Tubigomma Deregibus S.R.L. reports the continent has become its second-biggest market.

Francesco Gori, departing CEO at Pirelli Tyre S.p.A., speaking at the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers' Annual General Meeting in Venice, tells the audience SR companies need to work closely with tire manufacturers.

An anti-vibration rubber products joint venture of Trelleborg and Freudenberg and Co. K.G., ultimately christened TrelleborgVibracoustic, plans to construct a second factory in India.

Bluegrass Roller Service Inc. plans to expand its rubber roller operation by building a plant adjacent to its existing factory in Shelbyville, Ky.

Rubberlite Inc. completes an expansion of its custom conversion and production site in Huntington, W.Va.

June

Pirelli & C. S.p.A. opens a tire plant in Silao, Mexico, with a gala celebration that includes an appearance by Mexico's president.

Elastec/American Marine Inc. adds a factory in Fairfield, Ill., to accommodate its expanding production capabilities and growing customer base.

Polymeric pharmaceutical dispensing packaging maker AptarGroup Inc. agrees to buy Stelmi Group, which manufactures elastomeric packaging components for injectable drug delivery.

Gran Tee Investments L.L.C. buys the closed Rubatex Bedford, Va., plant, with plans to revive it as a mixing operation.

Royal Adhesives & Sealants purchases Clifton Adhesives.

Pirelli and P.T. Astra Otoparts Tbk. of Indonesia join together to build a $120 million motorcycle tire plant near Jakarta, Indonesia.

Tire-building machinery maker RRR Development Co. Inc. expands at its North Canton, Ohio, plant and moves into a facility in Vietnam

Phenolic resins producer SI Group Inc. takes its trade secrets fight with Sino Legend (Zhangiagang) Chemical Co. Ltd. to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

ContiTech A.G. acquires Freudenberg Sealing Solutions' molded brake components business and rubber conveyor belt maker Specialised Belting Supplies Ltd.

BRC Rubber & Plastics Inc. buys the equipment and intellectual property assets of Veyance Technologies Can-ada Inc.

Bridgestone Americas earmarks $74 million to a project that expands agricultural tire capacity and upgrades its Des Moines, Iowa, facility.

Solutia Inc. settles a long-running patent fight with Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Ltd. and Korea Kumho Petrochemical Co. Ltd. over a chemical intermediate used to make rubber antidegradants,

Goodyear expands its off-the-road tire business in Japan by acquiring the shares of Nippon Giant Tire Co. Ltd. it didn't own.

Vail Rubber Works Inc. adds a plant in Axis, Ala., to expand its urethane- and rubber-covered roller business.

Slow demand from China and Europe bring down the price of natural rubber.

Bluestar Silicones USA Corp. opens a plant and warehouse in York, S.C.

Goodyear is hit with a racial discrimination lawsuit by a production worker at its Beaumont, Texas, factory.

July

Rubber weatherstripping maker Nish- ikawa Cooper L.L.C. plans to expand its factory in Topeka, Ind.

BASF Corp. purchases polyurethane systems supplier ITWC Inc.

Universal Rubber & Polymer Ltd. buys Dybrook Products Inc.

Johns Manville Inc. enters the EPDM single-ply roofing membrane field via a renovation and upgrading of a plant it purchased in Milan, Ohio.

Tire repair equipment maker Technical Rubber Co. Inc. upgrades equipment and hires more employees at its Johnstown, Ohio, headquarters operation.

H&M Rubber Co. Inc. decides to close its Kent, Ohio, factory by early 2013 and lay off the 84 workers at the site.

Goodyear increases its lead as the top North American rubber product maker in the annual Rubber & Plastics News rankings.

Federal-Mogul Corp. decides to close its Michigan City, Ind., wiper blade factory and move production to Mexico, impacting about 100 workers in Indiana.

A&A Manufacturing Co. Inc. acquires Ro-Lab American Rubber Co. to give it a larger presence on the West Coast and increase its polyurethane and rubber-based product line.

Medical device maker Specialty Silicone Fabricators Inc. consolidates its Paso Robles, Calif., operations under one roof.

Parker Hannifin Corp. purchases the hydraulic hose division of India's Pix Transmission Ltd.

Cooper Tire plans to use part of a $6.9 million federal grant to help fund research and development of guayule rubber as a U.S. rubber source.

ExxonMobil Chemical Co. decides to close the former Advanced Elastomer Systems operation in Akron and transfer employees to its expanded Houston complex.

Mexican compounder JevsaMex is acquired by Preferred Compounding Corp.

TMP Inc.'s Cleveland offices are moved to parent French Oil Mill Machinery Co.'s headquarters and manufacturing facility in Piqua, Ohio.

Portage Precision Polymers Inc. more than doubles its Ravenna, Ohio, compounding capacity by installing a custom internal mixing line.

August

Protective Industries Inc. acquires rubber product maker Shercon Inc.

Lexington Precision Corp. buys Quality Synthetic Rubber Co. in a deal that focuses on automotive and medical product manufacturing.

A jump in automotive production causes rubber component sup- pliers to gain steam, too.

Elastomer components maker LTI Flexible Products Inc. is sold by one private equity firm to another.

After three months of negotiations, the United Steelworkers union reaches a four-year contract with Veyance Technologies Inc.

Goodyear's North American president declares the company plans to hire 1,000 U.S. armed forces veterans during the next three years.

Star Thermoplastics expands its facility in Broadview, Ill.

Michelin North America recalls about 841,000 light truck tires in the U.S. and Canada because of belt separation problems.

The Armstrong tire brand becomes the property of Zafco Trading L.L.C., which intends to use it to market farm and truck tires in the U.S.

Eastman Chemical Co. acquires Solutia Inc.

ContiTech A.G. plans to expand its hose line by acquiring the automotive air conditioning portion of Parker Hannifin Corp.'s Mobile Climate Systems Division,

Fenner P.L.C. announces three acquisitions, including American Industrial Plastics.

Goodyear—followed by other tire makers—cuts tire production worldwide because of slower sales volume.

Sil-Pro L.L.C., after completing the move of its tool shop, launches the addition of a clean room.

Bridgestone Americas buys land in Arizona as the base of its agricultural operations for its guayule research center being set up in Mesa, Ariz.

The Duraline division of J.B. Nottingham & Co. Inc. abandons Islandia, N.Y., and moves operations to DeLand, Fla.

A report on women in the rubber industry shows their sex generally isn't a barrier to success as it once was, but they generally don't choose the business as a career path.

September

Lexington Precision Corp. renames its medical operations Qure Medical.

In separate deals, Holz Rubber Co. acquires Caliber Industries Inc. and some assets of AirBoss of America Corp.'s Industrial Division.

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. begins construction of a factory in Sri City, India.

Elastomer processor and trader Goldsmith & Eggleton Inc. is acquired by Ravago Holdings America Inc.

Lehigh Technologies Inc. raises $16 million from investors to use for expansion and research and development.

Ansell Ltd. agrees to buy Comasec S.A.S. to expand its base in the personal protective equipment glove market.

Polyurethane products maker Plei-ger Plastics Co. sets out on an addition of manufacturing and office space at its Washington, Pa., location.

Anticipating higher demand, carbon black maker Cabot Corp. embarks on a series of expansions.

Goodyear settles a lawsuit brought by a couple injured in a motorcycle accident that occurred when their Dunlop tire failed.

The plaintiffs in an off-the-road tire duties case challenge the constitutionality of a countervailing duties law passed by Congress.

Firestone Building Products Co. aims to double the production capacity for thermoplastic polyolefin roofing at its Tuscumbia, Ala., factory.

Poly-Nova Technologies L.P. adds machinery and sets up a development lab at its Guelph, Ontario, headquarters and manufacturing site.

At a cost of $1 billion, Lanxess A.G. announces it will build an EPDM rubber plant in Changzhou, China, and a neo-dymium-based performance butadiene rubber operation on Jurong Island, Singapore.

The three-year run of elevated tariffs on Chinese-made consumer tire imports ends.

The new Vernay Laboratories Inc. molded rubber products factory in Suz-hou, China, goes online.

October

Advanced Flexible Composites Inc. adds a plant in reaction to demand for silicone-coated belts for the restaurant industry.

Higher tariffs on consumer tires from China didn't hurt Giti Tie Co. Ltd., its chairman declares in a speech at the annual Tire Society meeting.

PanAridus L.L.C. offers the first samples of domestically produced gua-yule rubber from the company for evaluation by tire manufacturers.

Quadion Corp. is acquired by Minneapolis local investment company Norwest Equity Partners.

Trelleborg grows in Brazil by adding an offshore products factory and buying a printing blanket operation from Day Brazil S.A.

Vystar Corp. creates another avenue for expansion by acquiring SleepHealth L.L.C.

Bridgestone Americas announces it will spend an additional $27.3 million at its bias-ply, off-the-road tire plant in Ill-inois.

U.S. Rubber Corp. adds a mixing line at its Conroe, Texas, belt factory.

Ram Enterprises Inc. adds a new plant in Elko, Nev., replacing another in that city, to make lagging products, serve as its headquarters and operate as a service center.

Apache Hose and Belting Co. rebrands itself as Apache Inc.

The International Tire Exhibition & Conference at the International Exhibition Center in Cleveland draws 2,714 attendees.

Goodyear decides to cut production at its Fayetteville, N.C., consumer tire plant because of reduced demand.

The world's three largest natural rubber producing nations—Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia—move to cut output to boost prices, but it doesn't im- mediately work.

Specialty hose maker Home Rubber Co. upgrades its operation and improves its financial base by recapitalizing the business.

Styron L.L.C. completes a major expansion of its Schkopau, Germany, solution-SBR facility.

China's Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. Ltd. reports it will build a $115 million passenger and light truck tire factory in Thailand.

Russell Livigni, retired from GenCorp Inc., is selected as the 2013 winner of the Charles Goodyear Medal from the ACS Rubber Division.

Precix Inc., previously known as Acushnet Rubber Co.,gets a new owner, a subsidiary of China's Anhui Zhongding Holding Group.

Semperit Holding A.G. buys a majority stake in Malaysia's Latexx Partners Bhd., a major glove producer in that nation.

DuPont Co. announces it will cut 1,500 jobs.

Dow Chemical Co. plans to close about 20 of its worldwide manufacturing sites and eliminate the jobs of 2,400 employees.

Ametek Inc. purchases Micro-Poise Measurement Systems L.L.C. for about $170 million.

The National Tire Research Center, funded by General Motors Co., Virginia Tech and the State of Virginia, opens.

Bridgestone Corp. declares it will boost capital expenditures by 25 percent during the next five years, to more than $3 billion, on tire and non-tire operations.

Alliance Polymers and Services L.L.C. expands its production site in Romulus, Mich.

Dow Chemical decides to build a world-scale metollocene EPDM elastomer operation on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

November

Superstorm Sandy halts business at a number of East Coast rubber operations, but none report extensive damage.

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions starts expanding its Northborough, Mass., facility, and plans to move its Hudson, Mass., operation to that site.

Federal marshals seized a display booth of Chinese tire maker Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas as partial payment for a court judgment against the company.

Harwick Standard Distribution Corp. celebrates its 80th anniversary.

TrelleborgVibracoustic forms a joint venture in South Africa to make chassis bushings for a major auto maker and parts supplier.

Molded Rubber and Plastics Corp. adds machinery and staff to its operations.

Datwyler Group agrees to sell its cable division and will concentrate on sealing and pharmaceutical packaging.

Czech tire maker Mitas A.S. ships the 100th truckload of radial farm tires made at its Charles City, Iowa, factory.

Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. plans to build its first U.S. tire produciton operation, expecting to start production by the end of 2015.

ContiTech announces its intention to build a marine hose plant in Brazil.

CGR Products acquires EG Gasket & Supply.

Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd.'s global reorganization gives its U.S. operation a measure of independence.

Private equity firm SK Capital Partners agrees to acquire Chemtura Corp.'s antioxidant and UV stabilizer solutions business.

Premold Corp. launches construction of an addition at its Oconomowoc, Wis., polyurethane products factory that will double the size of the facility.

December

AirBoss of America Corp. receives a contract worth up to $20.4 million to supply overboots to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Carlisle Companies Inc. moves some of its power transmission parts business back to the U.S. from China.

CEO Maurice Taylor forecasts 25-percent sales growth for Titan International Inc. in 2013.

James McElya, chairman and recently retired CEO of Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., is named Rubber & Plastics News' Rubber Industry Executive of the Year.