Continental AG says strong replacement and original equipment demand has its consumer tire plants running at full blast.
As a result, the company plans to manufacture 124 million passenger and light truck tires worldwide this year, close to 10% more than in 2010. The new plant in Hefei, China, opened earlier this year, will help the company achieve this goal.
“Yet the additional capacities created in the plants are not yet sufficient to cover the predicted long-term demand completely,” says the company.
So Continental is launching an extensive investment program to increase tire production. The plants in Mount Vernon, Ill., and Camacari, Brazil, will be expanded with additional annual capacities of around four million each.
For more information on the expansion in Mount Vernon, read the following:
“Continental to expand production at Illinois plant” and
“More on Continental’s $224 million plan.”
In addition, new greenfield tire plants are currently in the planning stage in the United States and Russia.
“In the European plants too, bottlenecks are being systematically removed, with production undergoing continuous expansion,” says the company. “These plans are set to increase (summer and winter tire) production capacity significantly over the next few years to meet the rise in demand.”
