Conti celebrates key step towards Sumter plant completion
A significant milestone in the construction of Continental Tire the Americas’ Sumter plant in South Carolina was reached with the securing of the final beam of the million square foot (93,000 square metre) greenfield plant’s basic structure on 19 February. The tyre maker celebrated the achievement with an event attended by local and state dignitaries, who were given the opportunity to see construction progress first-hand. It is now eleven months since the groundbreaking ceremony at the 330 (134 hectare) acre site was held.
“Today’s milestone celebration at Continental Tire puts us one step closer to filling up the middle of South Carolina with tyres,” said South Carolina commerce secretary Bobby Hitt during the ceremony. “There is nothing more satisfying than to see that final steel beam bolted into place. It signifies the progress and commitment of a German tyre powerhouse that has tipped the scales to position South Carolina as the number one tyre producer in the world. We celebrate with Continental today. This is progress, and represents the job opportunity and economic vitality Continental is bringing to South Carolina.”
Construction continues on schedule and the plant is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The first pieces of machinery have been delivered and installed, and now await the first production of Continental and General brand passenger and light truck tyres in Sumter.
“I would like to congratulate our general contractor, Walbridge-Mashburn, on the significant progress made on key areas of the plant including the mixing, tire building, stock preparation, curing, final finish and warehouse areas,” said Sumter plant manager Craig Baartman. “In addition, thank you for working hard to ensure we reached today’s key construction milestone of the installation of the final beam in the facility structure. This is quite an accomplishment considering we just began construction at the site this past June.”
Production in Sumter is expected to being in early 2014 and will eventually reach a production capacity of some five million units per year by 2017. A second phase is expected to bring the plant’s full production capacity to approximately eight million units per year by 2021.
In addition to construction milestones, Conti’s Sumter team continues to work toward meeting recruitment goals as nearly 300 positions are expected to be filled this year. The first employee, a civil engineer, was hired in April 2012, and to date the team has recruited people to fill more than 50 positions.
“As construction continues, we will focus on recruiting, training and developing our team to have a workforce ready to build a quality product once the plant opens and production begins,” added Baartman. “Some of the key positions we will recruit for this year include department managers and supervisors, functional support such as finance and IT, and production and technician positions.” Continental says it will continue its partnership with the readySC workforce training programme and Central Carolina Technical College to assist with staffing and training interested candidates.
Altogether, Continental Tire the Americas will invest more than $500 million into the Sumter plant and create about 1,600 new jobs.
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