Although Hankook Tire is still hiring staff for its new factory in Clarksville, Tennessee and intends to hold an official plant inauguration ceremony towards the end of this year, tyre production has reportedly already started there.
An official opening ceremony for Bridgestone’s new passenger car tyre factory in Russia will be held next Thursday, states the tyre maker. Although commercial production at the Bridgestone Tire Manufacturing C.I.S. LLC facility began last December, on 25 May more than 200 invited guests, including key Bridgestone partners, suppliers and representatives from local, regional, national and also Japanese government authorities, will attend a ceremony at the 81-hectare plant site in the Zavolzhye Industrial Zone, some 560 miles southeast of Moscow.
Guizhou Tyre Co. Ltd. intends to build a truck tyre factory in Vietnam. Chinese industry publication Tireworld writes that the company will invest RMB 1.67 billion (£189.3 million) in the project, which will result in a plant capable of manufacturing 1.2 million all-steel radials per annum. The intention is to set up the factory in the Long Jiang Industrial Park, some 30 miles from Ho Chi Minh City; Tireworld says a 20-hectare site has been selected, with construction commencing in the coming 12 months.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture, the Philippine Rubber Farmers Association (PRFA) and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. to establish the country’s first ever tyre production facility.
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.
In addition to reporting a pause in production at its Chungli plant due to a fire at the site, Federal Corporation also says it is readying its new factory in Taoyuan City’s Guanyin Industrial Park for its operational debut in February 2017. The Guanyin plant is Federal’s second on the island of Taiwan and the company’s third – Federal also operates a plant in Nanchang (Jingxi Province, China), which it acquired from Hero Tire in 1997.
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.
Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Steel Corporation Limited is to receive 100 acres for the tyre factory it is setting up with technical assistance from Marangoni. The land is being acquired by the Urban Development Authority of Sri Lanka, which will lease it to Ceylon Steel for a 99-year period.
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.
Examation, a new tyre manufacturing system from Bridgestone Corporation that combines technologies from the company’s BIRD production system with artificial intelligence, will be introduced into Bridgestone’s Tatabánya car tyre factory in Hungary this year. Following the system’s set-up in Hungary, Bridgestone will then introduce Examation in its new plant in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, which is expected to commence production in the final quarter of 2016.
Ground was broken and the first stone set in place for the new Michelin plant in Mexico at a ceremony held yesterday and attended by government dignitaries, key customers and company management. Construction of the plant in León – Michelin’s 69th factory globally and 21st in North America – is expected to begin immediately, with completion currently scheduled for late 2018.
Apollo Tyres’ Enschede plant in the Netherlands has a 200 tonne per day capacity and currently operates at more than 90 per cent capacity utilisation, and to supplement output within the region the tyre maker is currently erecting a brand new factory in Hungary. During a conference call last week, Gaurav Kumar, chief financial officer at Apollo Tyres Ltd., confirmed that the company has planned a capital expenditure of €200 million for the project during the current financial year (1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017).
When Tyrepress.com visited Qingdao Sentury Tire Co., Ltd in China late last year, newly-appointed executive vice-president Rami Helminen shared details about the US factory project he’d been hired to head. He disclosed that “hundreds of millions of US dollars” would be invested in a factory, and that a search for a suitable site was already underway. It appears the tyre maker has decided upon a location in the state of Tennessee.
Continental’s interest in setting up a tyre factory in Thailand has been the subject of rumour for years, and once again the topic is on the table. Bangkok-based newspaper The Nation shares that Sirivan Koo-Amphorn, general manager of Continental Tyres Thailand, is meeting with government representatives this week to discuss incentives and other support that may persuade Continental to select Thailand ahead of rivals such as China. A decision on the location of Continental’s new factory is expected to be taken by the end of this year.
In order to furnish the Brazilian market with a steady supply of locally-made products, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. is investing 312 million real (£73.0 million) to add a truck and bus tyre manufacturing capability to its site in Fazenda Rio Grande, Paraná state. The investment will cover the cost of erecting a new premises adjacent to the existing passenger car and truck tyre manufacturing facility as well as new production equipment. A March 2019 start to truck and bus tyre manufacture is scheduled, and the initial capacity will be 500 tyres per day.
