Michelin/Continental Venture to Supply Mercedes

Industry Media sources, including European Rubber Journal and Tire Business, are reporting that TW-Fitting, a Group Michelin and Continental AG joint venture, will set up a factory to supply Mercedes-Benz America with mounted tyre/wheel assemblies.

TW-Fitting is a unit of Eurofitting, a Belgian subsidiary of Michelin Continental Projects, which itself is a 50:50 joint venture Michelin and Continental joint venture. The new plant will be Eurofitting’s first North American plant, although the company already operates several tyre/wheel assembly facilities in Europe.

The companies say that the new venture will take up half of the 5.42 million, 100,000 square foot, Legacy Industrial Campus which is under construction in rural Tuscaloosa County near Vance, Alabama. The facility is close to the Mercedes plant where the M-class sport-utility vehicle is assembled.

Mercedes will also double the Vance plant’s production capacity to 160,000 vehicles annually, including assembly of the new Grand Sport Tourer and the next-generation M-class.

The TW-Fitting operation will create 35 jobs initially, according to the Tuscaloosa Industrial Development Authority, which has approved tax abatements for the project totaling $453,581. Plant construction should be completed by September, the authority said.