Federal Reports Record Shipments

Federal Corporation shipped 1.7 million tyres in the first quarter of 2006 – the largest quarterly total in the company’s 52-year history. The figure reflects increased production at Federal’s Taiwanese and Chinese bases. In March alone the company delivered 670,000 tyres.

The increase has been driven by ”phenomenal growth” at Federal’s Jiang Xi, China (JFT) factory. JFT shipped 1.51 million tyres in 2004, and 2.34 million in 2005. We expect JFT to deliver close to 5 million tyres this year.

Federal representatives say they expect to see continued capacity increases and production output for the next five years – largely coming from planned new machinery in the JFT China factory. Capacity utilisation rates are reported to be at our near 100 per cent in both plants. Total shipments for 2006 are predicted to reach 3.5 million units from Federal Taiwan compared with 3.3 million in 2005. Combined shipments from both factories are expected to reach 8.5 million units this year.