Pirelli has commissioned Belgian industrial property developer WDP to construct a new 62,000 square metre warehouse alongside the tyre manufacturer’s existing Slatina, Romania manufacturing operation. According to WDP, the news comes as part of “an expansion of the tyre manufacturer’s existing production facility”. WDP predicts that the project will cost around 40 million euros.
Pirelli will invest 105 million euros in its Romanian plant over the next five years, the manufacturer has announced. The investment, which is supported by around 35 million euros of state aid, is designed to increase the size of the factory – from 180,000sqm to 200,000sqm – the number of employees by 500 to 3,500 in total, and its capacity. Initial estimates say the company plans to raise the current production figure of 8.5 million tyres per year to 10 million at the end of 2013 and 13 million by the end of 2017.
The Prime Minister of Romania, Emil Boc has inaugurated the extension of Pirelli’s tyre factory in Slatina, accompanied by the Italian manufacturer’s chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera, and the Italian ambassador in Bucharest Mario Cospito. The full 160 million euro extension, begun in 2008 and to be concluded in 2013, will increase production capacity from 7 million passenger car units at the end of 2011 to 10 million by the end of the extension project and the extension of its area. Pirelli says the plant is already one of its most modern, and will become its biggest passenger car tyre plant when the extension is complete.
Three years ago, Pirelli launched a programme to assist staff at the Hospital of Slatina, a facility located near the company’s Romanian car and light truck tyre plant. Since this time the Italian tyre maker has contributed towards the professional training of more than 120 doctors and nurses, who have benefitted from assistance provided by Milan’s Niguarda Hospital Ca’ Granda. Pirelli’s support of the Slatina hospital has now been renewed with the signing of an agreement to expand and extend the programme to 2013.
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