Prinx Chengshan reports that “steady progress” is being made at its new tyre factory in Thailand. Construction work commenced on 31 March and the purchase of key equipment by invitation to tender has now been completed. The company estimates that all steel production workshops, mixing workshops, and supporting public works will be completed by the end of this year. Production at the site should commence in 2020.
Passenger car tyre production and capacity at Apollo Tyres’ Gyöngyöshalász plant in Hungary has steadily grown over the past two years. These respectively reached 2.1 million and almost 3 million units a year by the end of March 2019, and Apollo is still ramping up in Hungary. It’s a different story in Enschede, some 700 miles to the west, but Apollo Tyres says it isn’t preparing to end car tyre production in the Netherlands any time soon.
One of the outcomes of today’s Board of Directors meeting at Toyo Tire Corporation is the decision to invest in ramping up capacity at the company’s tyre factory in North America. Approximately 7 billion yen (£51.6 million) will be invested in this project.
A 7.2-million-euro investment will lift capacity at the STARCO wheel manufacturing facility in Croatia by 75 per cent over the coming four years. This demand-driven increase covers a range of wheel types, including pressed, spun, made-to-measure and dual wheels. The company comments that most of the investment will take place during the first year.
It’s only a couple of months since we last reported a capacity increase at the Magna Tyres Group factory in Hardenberg, the Netherlands, however the company has now announced its intention to implement another OTR tyre expansion project. While the last expansion focused on increasing 26.5R25 and 29.5R25 capacity, this time round Magna Tyres will increase 17.5R25, 20.5R25 and 23.5R25 production – capacity for these is expected to reach 7,000 tyres in 2019. Magna Tyres Group comments that this growth is in keeping with its 2018 to 2023 business plan.
Capacity at the Prometeon Tyre Group plant in İzmit, Turkey will increase by 75 per cent by 2020 in order to accommodate plans to almost double exports from the facility. This project will be funded by a US$115 million investment announced by the company on Tuesday.
Pirelli Tyre Russia and Rostec have placed their signatures upon a memorandum covering plans to more than double production capacity at the Voronezh Tire Plant in southwest Russia. This agreement formalises the long-held aim of increasing capacity at the joint venture facility from 2 million to more than 4 million passenger car tyres per annum.
An additional investment is being made in the Sumitomo Rubber do Brasil factory in Fazenda Rio Grande, Brazil, which is scheduled to begin producing truck and bus tyres next March. This investment of BRL 153 million (£28.7 million, US$37.6 million) builds upon the BRL 312 million investment Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) announced in July 2016 for setting up bus and truck tyre production equipment in Fazenda Rio Grande. The extra investment will double the original starting capacity of 500 truck and bus tyres a day – SRI now plans for a daily capacity of 1,000 truck and bus tyres by October 2019.
During a conference call held this month, the chief financial officer of Apollo Tyres Ltd. confirmed that passenger car tyre production at the Apollo Vredestein plant in Enschede, the Netherlands would be reduced as capacity for these products grows in the company’s new, more cost-competitive facility in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary. However, this trend shouldn’t be seen as a transfer of capacity, as the plan for Enschede going forwards is for its continued utilisation, with greater emphasis placed upon other segments.
When Magna Tyres Group officially commenced production at its Obo Tyres plant in Hardenberg, the Netherlands on 11 January, Obo general manager Peter Schrijver told us that high levels of efficiency, lower transport costs and lower import duties make it “very cost effective” for Magna Tyres to manufacture in Europe. He also said that Magna had placed a further order for 23-, 26- and 29-inch presses and would undertake measures to effectively double capacity. Just over half a year on, the company has completed its first expansion in Hardenberg. According to Magna Tyres, OTR tyre production capacity is almost twice what it was at the start of the year.
Approximately £145 million will be invested in the Bridgestone tyre plant in Poznań, Poland over the next half a decade in order to boost production capacity by around 30 per cent. Quoted in a Bridgestone press release, Roman Staszewski, plant manager and managing director of Bridgestone Poznan, said close to PLN 700 million would be invested and, by 2022, new technology would be added and current production lines upgraded in order to increase daily production capacity from 31,000 to more than 40,000 tyres.
Despite a company restructuring that includes the closing down of the private joint-stock company (PJSC) Rosava, the Rosava factory in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine is currently gearing up to begin production of 19-inch tyres following the installation of new plant equipment.
A total of US$45.5 million is being invested to expand the Yokohama Group’s global production capacity for off-highway tyres. The investment will cover the production of a new plant in India that will add a further 34,700 tonnes to Yokohama’s capacity by the end of 2019. Work on the plant will commence next month at the site in Dahej operated by ATC Tires Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber’s July 2016-acquired off-highway company Alliance Tire Group (ATG).
Through an investment of around 70 million euros in its factory in Nokia, Finland, Nokian Tyres group company Nokian Heavy Tyres Ltd. will increase its production capacity by 50 per cent over the coming three years. The maximum capacity for heavy tyre production will grow from approximately 20 million kilogrammes a year to 32 million kilogrammes. Alongside this capacity boost, approximately 50 additional people will be hired for the production of heavy tyres.
Teijin Aramid intends to increase production capacity for its Twaron fibre by more than 25 per cent. This additional capacity will become fully available by the end of 2022.
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