Cordenka celebrates 75th anniversary

Cordenka celebrated 75 tyre cord manufacturing on 25 April 2013. The company’s Obernburg location has been producing technical viscose yarn under the Cordenka name since 1938. And for the seven and half decades since then its products have been used as reinforcing material for tyres and other technical rubber goods.

Bayerische Glanzstoff-Fabrik AG, the original name of Cordenka and the other chemical fiber companies located at the Obernburg Industrial Center, was founded as far back as in 1918. To create jobs in the Spessart and Odenwald region characterized at the time by the agricultural and cottage industry, the Royal Bavarian State Government encouraged the establishment of an industrial park. Precisely in view of the importance of the textile industry in the region, the founding of a fiber company was ideal. In March

1924, the first spinning of textile viscose (back then also called artificial silk) marked the birth of the Obernburg plant. Since 1938, the Obernburg location has manufactured not only textile viscose yarn but also technical viscose yarn as reinforcing material for tyres and technical rubber goods sold under the well-known product name Cordenka. 

In addition to tyres Cordenka is also used as reinforcing material in hoses and other industrial applications. In addition, Cordenka produces sodium sulfate for the detergent and glass industry.

The automobile has become indispensable in our lives and has developed into much more than ‘just’ a mode of transportation. After all, strict requirements are imposed on cars – and justifiably so. Safety aspects have grown in importance through the years and advances made in engineering and safety rapidly follow one another. All this has made automobiles increasingly more comfortable, luxurious and safe. Apart from the pure safety aspects, however, driving dynamics, driving comfort and fuel consumption play an important role so that these requirements must always be met – and tyres are a decisive contributing factor.

“A car can be the most perfect example of ingeniousness, but if the tyres are not good, the requirements mentioned above cannot be met. Formula 1 impressively shows how decisive tyres are for overall success”, comments Andreas Eule, chief executive officer. “By continuously innovating and improving products, we make a decisive contribution to car-related safety, environmental compatibility and driving pleasure”.

Such is Cordenka’s reputation that all the best known brands can be counted among the company’s worldwide customers. And the export ratio of over 70 per cent underlines the company’s international orientation. Cordenka currently has 620 employees in two production facilities – a primary yarn plant and a converting plant – in Obernburg on the Main River. Additional production locations are in Mühlhausen (Thuringia) and Gorzow (Poland).