Last month, Michelin laid the foundation stone for a new passenger vehicle tyre production facility at its Tiruvallur plant in India. The tyre maker is investing Rs 5.64 billion (£51.62 million) to expand the Tamil Nadu site, which opened as a truck and bus plant in 2013.
Pirelli has revised plans to expand its Carlisle tyre plant in response to demand for further storage space. Documents received by Carlisle City Council and Cumberland Council on 22 July show that Pirelli has enlarged the proposed “green tyre store” it intends to build adjacent to the Dalston Road factory’s main manufacturing building. At 2,650 square metres, the planned tyre storage building is now 200 square metres larger than as shown on the previously approved plan that Pirelli submitted in June 2023.
Completion of a major upgrade to its Des Moines facility in the USA gives Titan International greater plant capacity. The company invested US$2 million in the expansion project, which includes the addition of two new 104-inch curing tyre presses that will accommodate the recently expanded AgraEDGE tyre line.
On 16 May, Bridgestone Americas held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of work to expand its Bridgestone Bandag, LLC manufacturing plant in Abilene, Texas. The US$60 million project will increase the facility’s floorspace by 50,000 square feet and meet growing demand for the company’s tread rubber products, with operations at the expanded plant scheduled to fun on six and seven-day production schedules.
Petlas will invest $360 million in the construction of a new light vehicle tyre production facility adjacent to the Turkish company’s existing plant in Kırşehir. The new production line will produce 100,000 tons of tyres for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, increasing the manufacturer’s total capacity by 42 per cent, reaching 340,000 tons. It will create around 1,850 new roles. Petlas expects to break ground on the new factory in 2023, with completion slated for 2024-25.
Nokian Tyres is investing approximately US$174 million to double tyre capacity at its factory in the USA and to expand warehousing capabilities at the Dayton, Tennessee site. This project will lead to the creation of 75 new jobs at the Dayton facility this year, and the expansion will also enable Nokian to add light truck tyres to the plant’s product mix in 2023.
Bridgestone Americas will invest an additional $190 million to renovate and expand its Costa Rican tyre manufacturing operations. The newly announced funds extend the existing plan to invest $60 million in Belén de Heredia by 2026. Bridgestone will increase its production capacity by 36 per cent, adding more than 160 new permanent jobs.
The expansion project of Kumho’s Vietnam plant has entered the final stage. It is reported that all administrative procedures related to the trial operation of the expansion project have been completed.
Construction work to expand the Sumitomo Rubber USA plant in Tonawanda, New York is progressing following the official groundbreaking at the site on 29 March, and in the coming two to three years the tyre maker will invest US$129 million in a project that will boost production capacity by 50 per cent. After erecting a 5,100 square metre plant building this summer, Sumitomo will install new mixing machines, tyre presses and tyre building machines. Plant manager Tim Sprunger says the expanded facility will feature a high level of automation.
Phase 2 of a US$100 million production capacity upgrade at the GRI specialty tyre factory in Sri Lanka is now complete, and GRI reports being in a position to increase capacity by almost 100 per cent from the present level, up to a daily output of 60 tonnes. This elevated capacity will satisfy the increased demand for farm tyres that GRI has enjoyed since launching agricultural ranges across key markets such as Europe, the USA and Australia in 2018.
Earlier today, BKT produced the first tyre following extensions at its Bhuj site in India. The expansion project’s completion represents the culmination of an investment valued at close to £80 million
On 11 January 2021 Jiangsu Province Department of Commerce approved Jiangsu General Science Technology Co. Ltd’s (GS Tire) US$300 million investment in a new tyre factory in Cambodia. Company stock market filings had previously described that factory as a $204 million investment, which suggests the scope of the project has increased significantly.
On 27 June, Sailun Group officially inaugurated the modernised former Anchi Tyres facility in Weifang, Shandong Province. Group subsidiary Sailun (Weifang) Tire Co., Ltd. invested RMB 719.9 million (£81.3 million) to upgrade production at the acquired plant and implemented its improvements within a timeframe of just six months.
Ceat Limited commissioned the second phase of its Nagpur plant in India’s Maharashtra state on Monday. The tyre maker says the two-wheeler tyre capacity added by this expansion project will be “be ramped up over a period of time, based on market demand and our overall capacities.”
Almost 18 months ago, Bridgestone announced it would invest at least 160 million euros in its passenger car tyre plant in Poznań, Poland. A stage in this factory expansion project began on 20 January with the laying of a foundation stone for additional production buildings.
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