At a recent tour of Continental Tire the Americas LLC's tire facility in Mount Vernon, Ill., Benny Harmse, the plant's vice president of manufacturing, said its truck tire production is in a state of flux.
By the end of the year, truck tire capacity will be increased 10%, to 8,900 tires a day, he said.
The plant has the capacity to manufacture more than 2.9 million truck tires a year. That includes the joint venture GTY (for General, Toyo and Yokohama) "plant," which is housed under the same 70-acre roof as Continental's own passenger, light truck and truck tire production equipment.
Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. is no longer part of the joint venture (see "Toyo ends joint venture with Continental and Yokohama."). By the end of the year, Toyo's production "will be converted to Yokohama and Continental production."
According to Harmes, of the truck tires produced, 72% are Continental's own brands, 18% are Yokohama tires, and 10% are Toyo tires.
(For recent news on the company's consumer tire production in Mount Vernon, read "Continental to expand production at Illinois plant" and "More on Continental's $224 million plan.")
