Michelin OTR Plant Expansion Adds Presses

(Akron/Tire Review) The $85 million expansion program Michelin North America (MNA) announced for its Lexington, South Carolina, OTR plant will see the addition of at least eight new curing presses. And the company said that it could increase capacity further on available land at the plant site.

The OTR plant, which produced giant earthmover tyres up to 63 inches, currently has 16 curing presses operating at full capacity. The additional eight presses, which are scheduled to come on-stream in early 2007, will add 50 to the plants capacity.

The highly automated plant, which opened in 1997, has some 250 employees and 500,000 square feet under roof. MNA said the expansion will add 70 new jobs there. The plant uses a two-stage building process to construct the giant tyres, including 16 automated second stage builders.

Excavation work for the expansion has already started at the facility, though plant officials admit they do not have final plans completed for the expansion.

The expansion cannot come too soon, said MNA officials, who claim that every tire built in that plant in 2005 was pre-sold, and that all available capacity in 2006 has already been sold to customers.

Earlier this year, Groupe Michelin announced an expansion programme at the company’s OTR tyre plant in Spain and an all-new plant in South America.