Conti to reduce production at US plant

From Rubber & Plastics News

Mayfield, Kentucky-Continental Tire North America Inc. plans to cut daily production 33 percent at its Mayfield plant by July.

Production at the plant will fall to 7300 tyres a day from 10 900 tyres, and 200 hourly employees will be laid off, Continental said.

“We must remain cost competitive in our industry, and to this end, we continuously evaluate all our production facilities,” said Martien de Louw, president and CEO of Conti Tire. “Frankly, we agonised over a number of scenarios for improving manufacturing logistics, but the Mayfield plant continues to be the highest-cost production facility for Continental in North America.”

Last October, Continental announced it was cutting production at the Mayfield plant by 3,100 tyres, or 22.1 percent of its daily output. In that case, 200 workers also were laid off.