Titan to keep rubber mixing/processing at Union City
ERJ staff report (TB)
Union City, Tennessee -- Titan Tire Corp. has decided to keep rubber mixing and processing at the former Goodyear plant in Union City it bought last year, which toether with plans to use the facility as a distribution point will create about 300 jobs by year-end.
Titan Tire also hopes to attract other businesses interested in using space at the sprawling 2.1-million-sq.-ft. factory, according to Chairman Bill Campbell, who told local media this week that the proposal would create a type of “condo factory.â€
Titan has stated a number of times since buying the closed plant in November that obtaining the mixing capacity-consisting of Banbury internal mixers and steel and fabric calendering lines-represents sufficient rubber compounding capacity to support $1 billion in additional production of farm and OTR tyres.
Obtaining the mixing capacity at Union City also will allow Titan to transfer rubber calendering equipment at its Bryan, Ohio, plant to the Sao Paulo, Brazil, factory it acquired in April from Goodyear, which would help upgrade and expand that 72-year-old facility.
Mr. Campbell declined to go into detail about what types of companies might be interested in leasing space inside the idled tyre plant or how soon the company will start offering space there.
Titan bought physical assets of the 44-year-old tyre plant and 480 acres of land in mid-November for $9 million and stated at the time it intended to use the facility as a warehouse for farm and OTR tyres and as an equipment rebuilding operation for the machines there.
Goodyear ceased manufacturing at the plant in July, putting 1,800 workers out of work.
Titan's agreement calls for it to scrap all curing presses and tyre building equipment Goodyear asks it to scrap; Goodyear has until June 2012 to remove all equipment it wishes to retain.
Titan said it stands to recoup some of the $9 million purchase price by selling the scrap machinery.
From Tire Business (A Crain publication)
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