Pirelli Mexico, China plants due onstream in 2012

ERJ staff report (TB)

Milan, Italy -- Pirelli & C. S.p.A.'s newest plants - a car/light truck tyre factory in Mexico and a radial motorcycle tyre plant in China - are on schedule to start producing tyres in 2012, Pirelli said in its 2010 financial results.

The Milan-based tyre maker budgeted $210 million last year for the plant in Silao, Mexico, which is being built principally to support the firm's sales in the US and Canada. The plant will come on stream in the second quarter of next year, initially with a capacity for about 10,000 units a day.

Pirelli's new plant in China, its third motorcycle factory worldwide, will come onstream with a capacity of 1 million units a year, according to Guglielmo Fiocchi, the moto tyres business unit manager.

Pirelli did not disclose where the plant is located, its size or the investment budgeted but said it will serve the replacement markets throughout Asia/Pacific as well as the Asian plants of the main Japanese motorcycle makers.

Pirelli's other motorcycle tyre plants are in Breuberg, Germany, with annual capacity of 2 million units of premium radial tyres, and in Gravatai, Brazil, with 10 million units of annual capacity for more conventional two-wheeler tyres.

Pirelli's moto business unit generated about $500 million in sales last year, according to Pirelli documents, or roughly 8 percent of the firm's tyre-related revenue. Pirelli sells both Pirelli- and Metzeler-branded tyres in this sector.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)