Sentury Tire chooses SSOE for US plant design
Engineering, architecture and construction management firm SSOE Group has been selected to design the new Sentury Tire manufacturing facility and North American headquarters in LaGrange, Georgia.
Engineering, architecture and construction management firm SSOE Group has been selected to design the new Sentury Tire manufacturing facility and North American headquarters in LaGrange, Georgia.
Malaysian news site Utusan Online reports the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Chinese tyre maker Shandong Wanda Boto Tyre Co. Ltd. and government agency the Malacca State Development Corporation (PKNM). The MoU, signed on 11 April, will see Wanda Boto invest Rm 1.2 billion (£213.5 million) to set up a tyre factory in Lipat Kajang, near the town of Jasin, some 100 miles southeast of Kuala Lumpur. The plant is expected to be operational by mid-2018.
A ‘Dream Factory’ solution for end-to-end automated materials handling will be installed in the Giti Tire passenger car tyre plant now under construction in the USA. Cimcorp reports that it and parent company Murata Machinery (Muratec) will supply a complete turnkey system that includes all required automation equipment and offers total system control, project management and seamless integration. The automated handling systems will be delivered and installed in three stages during 2017 and 2019.
Thailand has been selected as the location for the new passenger car and light truck tyre factory that Continental AG has planned for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Groundbreaking at the 750,000 square metre site in Rayong Province later this year will mark the start of work on phase one of a project that will require an investment of approximately €250 million by 2022 and give the factory a planned production of around 4 million tyres per annum within the same timeframe. Operations are expected to begin in 2019.
News of MRF Ltd.’s plan to set up a new factory in India’s Gujarat state first circulated towards the end of 2015, and now the tyre maker reports signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government that sets out its in-principle intention to erect a manufacturing facility there.
An official groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday for the new Continental tyre factory in the USA. The ceremony, attended by federal, state and local governmental officials, marked the beginning of the construction process, which is expected to be completed in 2019.
A ceremony to mark the start of production at a new Bridgestone passenger car tyre plant was held yesterday in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia. Volume production will commence in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Turkish joint venture tyre maker Brisa Bridgestone Sabancı Lastik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. – or Brisa, as it is more commonly known – intends to primarily utilise a US$150 million long-term loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and $160 million from a syndicated loan transaction arranged and coordinated by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) for the greenfield factory it is now building in Anatolia. A portion of the financing will also be directed towards the expansion of Brisa’s truck and bus tyre plant in Izmit.
The first phase of the greenfield factory project that Ceat Ltd began in late 2014 is now complete, the tyre maker reports. The Buti Bori plant, near Nagpur in India’s Maharashtra state, was commissioned on 28 March and has the capacity to produce 15 tonnes of two and three-wheeler tyres a day – some 40,500 pieces.
According to reports, Michelin intends to erect a new passenger car and light truck tyre factory in Mexico. Citing information from “documents” and an e-mailed statement, Reuters writes that this plant would initially have an annual capacity to produce 5 million tyres, a number that could be doubled by around 2020 should market conditions favour growth. The facility will be located in the state of Guanajuato and be ready to enter production in 2017.
Indian tyre maker Ceat Ltd reports it has given its wholly-owned Ceat Specialty Tyres Ltd (CTSL) subsidiary land in Ambarnath, near the city of Mumbai, for the purpose of erecting a new greenfield radial OTR tyre factory on the site, and has further aided the project through an Rs 250 million (£2.6 million) equity investment in CTSL in the October to December 2015 quarter. Altogether, CTSL will invest Rs 3.3 billion (£33.8 million) to build a plant with an initial daily capacity of 40 tonnes.
Continental has confirmed its intention to erect a new commercial vehicle tyre factory in the USA, and while no start of construction date has been announced the company says it expects to break ground in the next few months “in cadence with market demands.” The tyre maker anticipates that in the long-term an investment of approximately US$1.4 billion will go into the project.
The US state of Mississippi has approved an incentive package for a US$1.45 billion tyre factory that Continental intends to build in the state. The incentives approved by the Mississippi State Legislature include providing loans of $263 million and various tax breaks. Mississippi will also assist with site acquisition and preparation work, and help with the cost of building the facility.
Tyre maker MRF Ltd reportedly plans to build a new manufacturing facility in India’s Gujarat state. According to a state government official quoted in The Times of India, the company is looking at a greenfield site in Bharuch.
Apollo secured 300 million euros financing for its Greenfield plant in Hungary, on which construction started in April 2015, bringing total investment to 475 million euros. The first product is expected to roll out in early 2017 and the facility will create approximately 1,000 jobs in the country. Commenting on the closure of the financing, K. Prabhakar, managing director of Apollo Tyres, Hungary said, “We thank our consortium partners who provided appropriate solutions to the specific financing needs for the project and facilitated a smooth execution.”
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