Pneumant Production Base Fürstenwalde in Danger

The Fürstenwalde production base of Pneumant Reifen GmbH is under threat in the long term, Dr. Rainer Schieben, Commercial Managing Director, announced at the Pneumant head office in Fürstenwalde at the beginning of September. As early as this autumn the company will draw winter tyres from the Japanese production for cost reasons, and part of the summer tyre production will also be transferred to Japan.

And, according to Schieben, the new owner, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, has already cut the production planning for the year 2000 by 200,000 tyres, which cannot be without repercussions on investment and employment. Schieben gave too high energy costs at Fürstenwalde as the reason for the problems. The current price per megawatt hour for the process temperature is roughly three times higher than in similar factories of the Dunlop parent company in Germany.

By international comparison within the Goodyear group the high energy price has become even less justifiable. Pneumant employs a workforce of 550 plus 40 apprentices at the Fürstenwalde production base. 325 people are employed at the company’s second factory in Riesa.

The tyre manufacturer is one of the few former GDR companies to have survived successfully. Thanks to an investment volume of 250 million marks since 1996 by the Dunlop parent company Pneumant possesses the most modern production facilities in Europe. In the car tyre replacement market the company is the clear market leader in the new federal states.