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.
News reports from Hungary suggest Hankook Tire has put on hold plans to set up a truck tyre production unit at its Rácalmás plant. English-language publication the Budapest Business Journal writes that fellow business daily Világgazdaság shared this news with its readers yesterday.
Production capacity for truck and bus radials at Bridgestone’s Warren County factory in Tennessee, USA will increase as part of a three-year, US$40 million investment to “meet market demand and address emerging customer needs.” Bridgestone Americas says it will break ground on expansion work at the 28-year old plant before the end of this year.
A new, fully automated warehouse is to be built at the Bridgestone manufacturing facility in Joliette, Canada. Bridgestone Canada Inc. is investing CA$56 million (£32.8 million) in the project, which will give it a maximum storage capacity of 500,000 car and light commercial vehicle tyres once the facility opens in early 2020.
With an investment of approximately 290 million euros, Hankook Tire is adding a truck tyre production unit to its factory in Rácalmás, Hungary. Work on this expansion project – the fourth since the plant opened in 2007 – will begin in June, with production expected to commence in June 2020. The truck tyre production unit will have the capacity to make 550,000 tyres a year, and its opening will create around 150 new jobs.
With new factories in Europe and now also the US Nexen Tire is growing in terms of global production capacity. However, the firm is also investing in developing its brand, especially in terms of football sponsorship. Recently Tyres & Accessories looked into how the company is combining the two in order to meet its goal of entering the global top 10 by 2025.
In 1976 Kettering Tyres paid local football club Kettering Town FC to print its logo on the front of the team shirt. The move caused ructions in what was then known as the first division and didn’t last long, but it did set a precedent for sponsorship that went to the next level this year. 41 years later, shirt sponsorship in the English Premier League (called Football League First Division back then), which brought in £226.5 million in sponsor revenues during the 2016-17 season, is very big business.
A total of US$304.3 million has been earmarked for the expansion of two Bridgestone tyre factories in India. Over a period of five years, Bridgestone India Pvt. Ltd.’s Pune and Indore plants will be upgraded to accommodate the growth of India’s car parc. Production capacity at the two facilities is expected to rise by an estimated 15,000 tyres per day, giving a combined daily capacity of approximately 41,000 tyres by 2022.
Alloy wheel manufacturer Borbet has announced plans to expand its main factory in Hallenberg-Hesborn, Germany to accommodate an enlarged in-house toolmaking facility. A 1,130-square metre hall will be erected alongside the existing toolmaking centre; Borbet says the hall will be built by the end of September, and the entire project completed by the start of 2018 at the latest.
CEOs and experts from China’s leading companies gathered in Shanghai and Beijing to explore how smart manufacturing will deliver value to the manufacturing industry and support government initiatives including China Manufacturing 2025. Hosted by Rockwell Automation “The Connected Enterprise CEO Forum” was led by Rockwell Automation’s new president and CEO, Blake Moret. However the interesting point from a tyre industry perspective is that the firm revealed that it is helping any unnamed Chinese tyremaker construct a factory in the US.
In addition to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of its car and light truck tyre factory in Joliette, Canada, last Thursday Bridgestone Americas officially broke ground on expansion work at the plant. Upwards of CAD$300 million (£178.1 million) will be invested over a period of five years and will see the installation of new equipment installed at the Joliette site that will lift production capacity by 3,000 tyres per day to a total of 20,000 tyres a day by 2023.
A five-year, US$164 million project to expand Bridgestone’s 42-year old Wilson passenger car tyre factory in the US state of North Carolina got officially underway yesterday with a groundbreaking ceremony at the site. During phases one and two of the investment, which will involve an investment of nearly $100 million, 167,000 square feet (approximately 15,500 square metres) of manufacturing space will be added to the plant. Daily output will rise by 3,000 tyres to 35,000 tyres a day by 2018.
A planned expansion of a Bridgestone passenger car tyre plant in the USA will help the company respond to increasing global demand for higher rim size tyres, the company says. The Wilson manufacturing facility in North Carolina will be expanded as part of a five-year, US$164 million investment to meet market demands and to invest in newer and more efficient technology. Work on the multi-phase expansion of the 42-year-old facility is expected to commence in early 2016.
Step off the plane and into a car at Qingdao airport and it won’t be long before you see a Sentury Tire billboard. While this particular Chinese tyre manufacturer isn’t a global player, it is rapidly internationalising and is selling millions of tyres in Europe (many of which end up in the UK). The firm is expanding very quickly and recent high-profile appointments and off-shore factory investment announcements suggest the firm is well and truly on a growth path. Towards the end of 2015, Tyres & Accessories met with export sales manager Hellen Yang and Davanti vice-general manager Wilson Zhang for a tour of the firm’s large and very modern factory near Qingdao airport.
India’s MRF Ltd has reportedly received approval from the government of Telangana to instigate an Rs 9 billion (£89.5 million) expansion of its Sadasivpet tyre factory in the state’s Medak district. The company first made its expansion plans public in April 2015, quoting an investment sum of Rs 9.8 billion and claiming the project would create an additional 900 jobs. The Sadasivpet announcement followed news in March 2015 that the tyre maker would invest Rs 45 billion in an ‘ultra mega project’ to expand its Perambalur and Arakonam plants in Tamil Nadu.
Ningxia Shenzhou Tire Co. Ltd. has broken ground on a new tyre plant in the city of Shizuishan in Ningxia Province, China. Company representatives have been quoted as saying that the production capacity forms the second phase of £1 billion project, the output of which is destined for high-end markets in the Europe and the USA.
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