Goodyear closes Phillippines plant

Feb. 4, 2002

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has closed its tire manufacturing plant in Marikina, Phillippines, "due to overcapacity and continuing softening in market demand," say Goodyear officials.

"The Phillippines tire market has not grown at the rate originally forecasted and the market has become highly competitive with a flood of low-cost imports from China and Southeast Asia," says Harold Smith, Goodyear Asia Region tire manufacturing director.

The factory employed 175 people and produced 1,200 tires a day. At its peak in 1999, the plant employed 400 workers.

Over the past 18 months, Goodyear has closed plants in England, Argentina, Italy and Mexico and has substantially reduced production in the United States, England and France, citing overcapacity as a key factor in each case.