Goodyear investing US$200 million in Cooper Kun Shan tyre factory

Goodyear is investing US$200 million (about 1.37 billion yuan, £170 million, 190 million euros) in its Cooper Kun Shan tyre factory. Following the latest investment, the total investment of the Cooper Kun Shan plant is expected to reach $500 million (about 3.42 billion yuan, £410 million, 470 million euros).

According to Kun Shan Development Zone, Cooper’s expansion plan is divided into two parts. The original production line of the Kun Shan factory will be expanded to increase the production capacity by 1.1 million tyres. At the same time, the tyre manufacturer will also build new production lines to increase the production capacity by 2.6 million tyres, making a total capacity increase of 3.7 million tyres a year. After the project is upgraded and expanded, it the Cooper Kun Shan operation will mainly produce high-performance radial low-noise tyres used in so-called new energy vehicles, with an average annual operating income of 1.05 billion yuan (about £130 million, 140 million euros).

As well as factory expansion investment, Goodyear is injecting “additionally registered capital” of $88 million (about 600 million yuan, £72.74 million, 82.67 million euros) into the Kun Shan operation. That brings the operation’s total registered capital to $237 million (about 1.62 billion yuan, £200 million, 2.2 billion euros).

In addition, Kun Shan Development Zone also revealed that Cooper will further increase investment in the future. The tyre company expects to add another $36 million (about 250 million yuan, £29.76 million, 33.82 million euros) in investment and $12 million dollars (about 82.06 million yuan, 9.92 million pounds, 11.27 million euros) in registered capital in the first half of 2023.

According to Cooper’s Chinese website, the tyre manufacturer officially announced its entry into the Chinese market in April 2006 and established its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai. In March 2007, Cooper’s Kun Shan factory produced its first tyre. In June 2008, Cooper established the Asia-Pacific Technology Centre in Shanghai and moved the centre to the Kun Shan factory in 2014. In addition to the Kun Shan factory,

Cooper acquired a majority stake in Qingdao GRT Rubber in 2016 and established a joint venture to produce tyres under Cooper’s brands.