On 1 October 2015 Nexen Tire broke ground on the site of its new plant in Zatec, Czech Republic. The company has committed to investing more than 829 million euros in building the new plant on 650,000 square metres of land in Zatec.
An event was held yesterday to mark the official start of work on Giti Tire’s new facility in the USA. Local and company dignitaries, including Giti Tire executive chairman Enki Tan, were present at the Chester County site in South Carolina to mark the groundbreaking with a ceremonial shovelful of soil.
At a ceremony attended by local government officials, senior management and international customers, last month Federal Tyres formally broke ground on its third tyre plant in Taiwan. The new facility is being erected on a 14,000 square metre site in the Taoyuan Industrial Park, and the NT$8.1 billion (£166.7 million) investment will be completed in two phases between 2014 and 2020; once the plant is fully operational, it will create 836 jobs and produce an estimated maximum of six million tyres a year.
Construction work has officially begun on Hankook Tire’s new factory in the United States following a groundbreaking ceremony held at the plant site in Clarksville, Tennessee on 9 October. The new facility, which is expected to begin operation in 2016 and will reach a production capacity of 12 million units, is Hankook’s eighth production facility worldwide and first in North America.
Some six weeks after inaugurating its new tyre applied technology research building, Evonik Industries has broken ground on a new research centre at its site in Rheinfelden, Germany. The company says it is investing a “double-digit million euro” figure in the new four-storey facility, which as of early 2016 will be used for research into silanes for tyre industry and other applications. Application engineering, analytics, and quality management functions will also be located in the new centre in future.
Almost a year after Bridgestone’s plans to establish a joint-venture factory in Russia’s Ulyanovsk Oblast region were made public, groundbreaking was held at the site of the tyre maker’s future passenger car radial factory on 1 April. The facility will be erected on an 81 hectare site around 900 kilometres (560 miles) southeast of Moscow, and production is expected to start in the first half of 2016. Plant output estimated to reach approximately 12,000 units a day by the second half of 2018.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has officially opened its new global headquarters. Goodyear chairman and CEO Richard J. Kramer, Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic spoke before leading a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the tyre company’s new offices.
The first employees are making themselves at home in Goodyear’s new global headquarters. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, around 200 employees from the tyre maker’s information technology and finance departments started work in the new US$120 million facility on 18 February. Eventually as many as 2,000 employees will work there.
Groundbreaking has taken place at the site of the future Casumina radial plant in Vietnam’s Binh Doung Province; on the morning of 16 February the company, Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company chairman and CEO Nguyen Ngoc Tuan presided over a ceremony marking the start of construction work at the 12 hectare site. Stage one work is expected to be completed next year and will give the plant an initial capacity of 350,000 tyres per annum. Completion of stage two is planned for late 2015 and will increase capacity to 600,000 tyres, while stage three, scheduled for completion in 2017, will give the plant a 1,000,000 piece annual capacity. Total investment in the plant amounts to VND 3,380 billion (£101 million).
For the third year in a row, The National Business Group on Health, a US non-profit organisation devoted to representing the perspective of large employers on national health policy issues, has honoured Michelin North America as one of the best employers for healthy lifestyles. The tyre maker is one of 48 national employers to receive the 2011 Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles award and one of only 20 to receive the group’s Platinum Award; this is the second year Michelin has received this highest award.
The construction of Bridgestone Americas’ new $100 million Akron Technical Center is progressing as planned, with a targeted finish date of 1 January, 2012, reports Tire Review.
Bridgestone Americas will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking tomorrow for its new $100 million technical centre in Akron, Ohio reports Tire Review. Company chairman, CEO and president Mark Emkes, as well as state and local officials, will be present. Bridgestone had debated moving near its national headquarters in Tennessee, but announced in 2008 that it had a preliminary deal to stay in Akron. That deal includes a $68 million public financing package offered by the state, county and city. The overall project, which includes a new 260,000-square-foot technical center at South Main Street and Firestone Boulevard, and neighborhood improvements, has been estimated at $102 million. The company expects workers to move into the building by late 2011 or early 2012, according to a report by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has embarked on a number of measures to boost its competitive edge in the North American market. As part of this the company intends to expand its Tupelo, Mississippi facility, and the groundbreaking ceremony for this project took place on September 22. According to Cooper, the US$7 million expansion work will increase the size of the 1.6 million square foot facility by an additional 32,000 square feet and include the installation of mixing equipment.
For the second year in a row Michelin North America employees have pitched in and lent Habitat for Humanity a hand in the tyremaker’s home neighbourhood of Greenville County, South Carolina. Since the groundbreaking in May, more than 600 Michelin employees and Habitat volunteers have given nearly 5,000 hours to build the two houses in the town of Greer, not far from Michelin’s US headquarters. Michelin North America chairman and president Dick Wilkerson was on hand to present the keys to the new homeowners.
Last Monday saw Kumho Tire begin construction work on its facility in the US state of Georgia, the fifth outside of Korea to be built by the company. Completion of work is anticipated for the second half of 2009, and initial capacity will be 2.1 million tyres.
“With the Georgia plant, Kumho Tire will be a further step ahead as a world-class tyre maker,” said Kumho Tire CEO Oh Se-chul in a statement.
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