Cooper Kunshan tyre factory forced to limit production

In May this year, China’s environmental protection department imposed a penalty on the Cooper Kunshan factory, restricting production on the grounds of violating the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law”. At the same time, the tyre manufacturing base was fined 240,000 yuan.

Neither the environmental protection department nor Cooper disclosed details of the case. The penalty document also did not show the specific reasons for the penalty or the extent and duration of the production restriction.

It is worth noting that this is the second time the Cooper Kunshan plant has been punished for environmental protection in about half a year. In November 2022, the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment fined the tyre factory 30,800 yuan for violating the “Regulations on the Management of Pollution Discharge Permits”.

Cooper officially announced its entry into the Chinese market in April 2006. In March 2007, the Cooper Kunshan factory produced its first tyre.

In 2023, Cooper – which is now part of Goodyear – decided to invest US$200 million to expand the production capacity of the Kunshan factory. The Kunshan factory will expand the original production line to increase the production capacity by 1.1 million tyres. At the same time, the tyre factory will also build a new factory building and increase the production capacity by 2.6 million tyres.