Further details on Goodyear’s Americas investments

At the end of May, Goodyear Tire & Rubber shared details of its plans to increase its consumer tyre capacity in the Americas by 12 million units a year between 2013 and 2019 by erecting a new factory and upgrading existing plants. Further details on these projects have been published by “agência latinapress”; on 27 June, it reported Goodyear’s Latin American region president Jamie Szulc as saying the tyre maker is looking at sites in Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and the US for its greenfield facility, which will have an annual capacity of 6 million tyres. Szulc is also quoted as saying that investments in Goodyear plants in Venezuela, Peru and Columbia are on the cards.

Venezuela has presented a number of difficulties in recent times but Szulc states that Goodyear sees the country as a “very attractive market” due to its strong car culture and cheap fuel. That said, further investment may depend on Venezuela’s government and its willingness to free up some $400 million in frozen Goodyear funds – money the tyre maker needs in order to pay its debts to raw material suppliers and secure shipments of necessary materials to Venezuela. As for Peru and Chile, Szulc says these particular markets are growing more strongly than the region as a whole, as are Mexico and Brazil.