CONTINENTAL TO BUILD PCR AND LIGHT TRUCK TYRE PLANT IN THAILAND

Time: Jan 28th  2017   Copy editor: Tyrefull

As a part of its tyre division¡¯s Vision 2025, Continental will set up a new passenger and light truck tyres production plant in Thailand.

The plant will be built up with an investment of € 250 million to have an annual production of 4 million passenger and light truck tyre by 2022.

The plant is expected to start production by 2019 and create around 900 new jobs in Thailand.

¡°The investment in Thailand is another major step in realizing the ambitious growth plans of our Vision 2025 by further improving the balance of our global manufacturing footprint and enhancing our position as one of the technologically leading tyre manufacturers worldwide. One important pillar of our long-term strategy is to operate with an agile and flexible set-up that enables us to react fast to the market requirements, establish further production capacities in the growth region APAC and to strongly support our Asia Pacific growth plans with high-tech production capabilities¡±, stated Nikolai Setzer, Member of Continental¡¯s Executive Board in charge of Corporate Purchasing as well as the Division Tyres that achieved a sales volume of more than 10 billion EUR in 2015.

¡°With the decision to build our new tyre site in Thailand we will strengthen our presence in both the Thai market and the rest of the APAC region. This plant will strongly support our planned business growth in both original equipment and replacement business for passenger and light truck tyres and further establish our customer relations in both segments. We want to benefit from the growth potential in this region in the replacement market and are confident that our local production will also enable a closer cooperation with new customers to further extend our position in these markets¡±, added Philipp von Hirschheydt, Head of the Business Unit Replacement APAC PLT.

¡°The site selection process is very complex, where we have to take into account not only the proximity to the markets and our customers, several infrastructure elements but also the workforce available as well as educational institutions which will support us to recruit the best skilled employees. The Thailand government as well as several local institutions have been a very supportive partner during the entyre selection process, therefore we want to express our sincere appreciation. Now we are looking forward to a fruitful and successful long-term cooperation¡±, explained Michael Egner, Project Manager Greenfield APAC.

The site for Continental¡¯s new Greenfield tyre plant in the Province of Rayong complies with all requirements. It is close to the targeted markets and customers, offers a good infrastructure with only 140 km distance to the city of Bangkok, offers a deep-sea port in Laem Chabang at 60 km distance and universities with a technical profile located nearby. The size of the site is about 750,000 m2 which potentially allows an expansion to up to 25 million tyres capacity per year. Continental expects the start of construction and ground breaking in the course of 2017.

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