Kenda Rubber investing £200M to build car tyre factory in Vietnam

Taiwan’s Kenda Rubber intends to significantly increase investment in Vietnam and establish a large passenger car tyre plant there. In an interview with Channel NewsAsia correspondent Victoria Chen, company chairman Yang Ying-ming said NT$10 billion (£200.5 million) would ultimately be invested to erect this facility, which will most likely be Kenda’s largest tyre factory and boast production capacity rivalling that of Kenda’s operation in China.

A large percentage of Kenda’s tyre production currently takes place in China – Yang told Channel NewsAsia that revenues from there account for some 70 per cent of the tyre maker’s total sales – however rising costs and the 39.33 per cent anti-dumping tariff slapped onto Chinese-made Kenda consumer tyres entering the USA mean that the country’s appeal as a manufacturing base is declining. Boosting production in Vietnam offers the Taiwanese company a means of addressing both issues.

In addition to erecting a new plant in Vietnam, Yang touched on plans to invest US$100 million in Indonesia in order to cater to domestic market demand. Facilities in both these countries will also feed Kenda Rubber’s planned expansion in the ASEAN region. Chen reports that Kenda intends to make ASEAN its main production base within the next decade.