Nexen Tire is considering eight southeastern US states as the possible location for a new $1.3-billion tyre factory project. According to stock market filing published on 18 May, Nexen is set to make a decision on the project by the end of 2023, with a view to getting the factory operational by 2028-2029.
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 has initiated work on its Oradea, Romania passenger car tyre factory, billed as the tyre industry’s first zero CO2 emission plant. An event marking the groundbreaking was attended by the Prime Minister of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă. The President of the Bihor County Council, Ilie Bolojan, and other high-level Romanian and Finnish officials also participated along with the chair of Nokian Tyres’s board of directors Jukka Hienonen. The first tyres are estimated to be produced in the second half of 2024. Commercial tyre production is expected to start in early 2025.
On 5 May, Jiangsu General announced plans to build a tyre plant in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, China. The total investment is about 1.51 billion yuan (about £170 million; €200 million). After completion, it will produce 1.2 million all-steel radial truck tyres and 100,000 OTR tyres per year. Jiangsu General says it is “the first modern tyre factory in Baotou City”.
While Sentury recently confirmed it is investing in a factory across the Mediterranean in Morocco, on 27 March 2023 officials once again confirmed that the Spain factory is set to begin construction this year. In addition, at the same time, executives agreed to prioritise the employment of ex-Endesa workers when the local power station closes. Indeed, the mayor of Las Pontes, Valentín González Formoso, and Qin Long, president of Sentury Tire, signed an agreement to that effect.
On 23 March, the 100 millionth Yokohama tyre – Geolandar A/T G015 – rolled off the production line at the company’s Salem, Virginia factory.
On 18 March Jiangsu General’s Cambodian factory produced its first tyre, which means the tyre maker’s second overseas factory is now ramping up its production capacity. Jiangsu General said that the products of the Cambodian plant are mainly produced under the Celimo brand and are sold in the United States, Europe and Brazil.
Nokian Tyres reports that it has received the sale price of 285 million euros from PJSC Tatneft for the sale of its operations in Russia. The total permissible transaction price defined by the Russian Governmental Commission was 23,050 million rubles. Now there are just “registration formalities” before the transaction completes and Nokian Tyres’ operations in Russia therefore end.
On 30 December Linglong announced that it would adjust the construction of its seventh production base in China. The construction location of the project was changed from Lujiang, Anhui, to Lu’an, Anhui. At the same time, the tyre manufacturer’s Lu’an factory is preparing to build a project with an annual output of 14 million sets of high-performance radial tyres and a project to regenerate via retreading and material recovery 30,000 tons of waste tyres. In the original design, Linglong’s seventh factory in China was intended to have an annual production capacity of 14.6 million sets of radial tyres.
Following the news that Toyo Tire officially opened its Serbia tyre production plant on 14 December 2022, details of the speeches given by Toyo Tire president and CEO Takashi Shimizu as well as Republic of Serbia president Aleksandar Vučić have been revealed.
On October 3, the Thailand factory of Jiangsu Xingda Steel Tyre Cord Co and Rojana Industrial Park Public Co held a land signing ceremony. It is reported that after seven months of planning, site selection and communication, the steel tyre cord factory finally decided to place Phase II in the Bowin Industrial Park in Chonburi Province, managed by Rojana.
On 7 September, an administrative penalty decision issued by Xiamen’s environmental protection department showed that Cheng Shin Tire (Xiamen) Co., Ltd was fined 23,857 yuan for an exhaust gas problem.
Progress has been made in the relocation of Aeolus’s Qingxu County, Taiyuan City, China tyre factory. Specifically, the Qingxu county government has already determined the factory’s new address. A few days ago, the relevant departments invited a design team to inspect the factory’s new location and discuss the relocation project’s design plan. At present, the design unit is preparing a feasibility proposal.
On 20 July 2022, the launch ceremony of the Advanced Polymer and Metal Materials Industrial Park in Qingdao City, Shandong Province was held. Tyrepress noted that among the seven projects that started construction, the Functional New Material Industrial Park belonging to the National Engineering Research Center for Rubber and Tire (NECRAT) was included.
Sentury is in the process of declaring its Spanish factory plans as a strategic industrial project with the government of Garcia, Spain. The tyre maker hopes that its plant in the As Pontes region of Garcia will be able to use this method to obtain fast-track approvals to speed up the entire project’s construction.
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Petlas
Valokuvaaja/Nokian Tyres
Las Pontes Council
Yokohama
Jiangsu General
Nokian Tyres
Linglong
Toyo
Xingda Steel Tyre Cord
Xiamen Haicang Ecological Environment Bureau
Aeolus
Screenshot from local media coverage