Four Goodyear plants to shut down temporarily

Aug. 8, 2008

Four Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plants will experience temporary shutdowns later this month in an effort to align production with demand, say Goodyear officials.

Goodyear's Gadsden, Ala.; Fayetteville, N.C.; and Union City, Tenn., plants will shut down the last two weeks in August, while the company's Napanee, Ontario, factory will shut down the last week in August.

In a related action, Goodyear's Lawton, Okla., plant will "reduce its tickets" for one week in September, says a Goodyear spokesperson.

Goodyear plans to remove eight million consumer tire units from production in 2008, "and this is part of that reduction."

The Lawton factory is Goodyear's largest factory, with the capacity to produce 65,000 passenger tires per day, according to Modern Tire Dealer research.

The Fayetteville plant has the capacity to build 57,000 passenger and light truck tires per day. Union City has the capacity to build 50,000 consumer tire units, while Gadsden's daily capacity is 25,000 units. Napanee has the capacity to produce 19,000 passenger tires per day.