Continental to Invest up to £27 million in Malaysia

Continental AG is planning to spend between £22 million and £27 million on equipment and machinery at its plants in Malaysia, the company’s director of marketing and sales for passenger car replacement Europe Jurgen Schmidt told the Malaysia Star newspaper.

The Continental group owns 51 per cent of Continental Sime Tyre International (M) Sdn Bhd, while the remaining stake is held by Sime Darby Bhd. The tyre factories are located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor and Alor Star, Kedah.

“We are increasing our tyre production, and we are modernising the production process to maintain our market share in Malaysia as well as using the country as an industry base for Asian countries,” Schmidt said.

He added that the export portion of production would increase to 50 per cent over the next two to three years from its present level of 25 per cent.

Continental AG is also expected to open its new Asia headquarters for automotive systems in Shanghai, China over the next few weeks, said Continental Teves AG CEO, Dr Karl-Thomas Neumann. “We are interested in moving into Asean countries but there are currently no concrete plans to do so,” he said.