Sentury Tire Americas is in the initial planning stages of building a highly automated production facility in the United States. When complete, the plant will have the capacity to produce more than 10 million tires per year.
Initial plans call for construction of the manufacturing facility to begin in 2017, and the plant be fully operational by 2018-19.
“Growing demand for our passenger, light truck, Crossover/SUV tires and our commitment to support our customer base throughout the world necessitated this move,” says Max Wee, director of sales for Sentury Tire. “This multi-million dollar facility is part of our manufacturing plant expansion that has included new facilities in Qingdao, China and Bangkok, Thailand. Sentury Tire has become known has a world leader in highly automated intelligent manufacturing processes that increase efficiency and minimize production times.”
Rami Helminen, executive vice president of Sentury Tire is expected to lead the project.
Helminen is a tire industry veteran, a former Nokian Tyre plc vice president, who had overall responsibility of Nokian's car and van tire business including business unit strategy, finance, production, sales, research/development and operational planning. Helminen also will direct the efforts of a professional site search company that Sentury Tire has appointed to assist in selecting the U.S. manufacturing location.
The site is expected to supply tires and serve customers in North America and Latin America.
Information on Sentury Tires Americas can be found at www.senturytireusa.com.
