Nokian Tyres plc and Qingdao Sentury Tire Co., Ltd. have signed an agreement that will see Qingdao build select Nokian passenger car tires for the central European market. "The off-take announcement does not affect Nokian Tyres’ supply for North America," say Nokian officials.
They add that Nokian will continue to use its factories in Finland and Dayton, Tenn., "to grow our North American business."
Tires made by Qingdao as part of the deal will be sold under the Nokian brand name.
"Nokian Tyres is in the process of negotiating additional contract manufacturing agreements and the total annual volume of these agreements in 2023-2027 is estimated to be between one to three million to complement the production at Nokian Tyres’ own facilities."
The Nokian-Qingdao partnership will start production in the first half of 2023 "and the first tires will be in the market in the second half of 2023. The manufacturing site will be regularly audited according to Nokian Tyres’ quality, sustainability and safety requirements."
"We have started to build the new Nokian Tyres without production in Russia and contract manufacturing is an essential part of these plans," says Nokian President and CEO Jukka Moisio. "It complements our own production and helps us respond to demand even more quickly and flexibly."
Last month, Nokian announced plans to build a new factory in Romania in response to exiting and selling its operations in Russia. Nokian is looking to replace its old Russian plant, which recently as 2021 had produced 80% of its passenger tires. (The company is in the process of selling its Russian operations.)
