Conti budgets $1.3B for tyre plant improvements, expansions

ERJ staff report (TB)

Hannover, Germany -- Continental A.G. is budgeting more than $1.3 billion in investments in its tyre business in the coming years, above and beyond the $1.3 billion it's committed in the past 18 months to new plants in the US and Russia and expansions in India and Brazil.

Conti CEO Elmar Degenhart disclosed the investment commitment in his comments this week to the financial community during the firm's fiscal 2011 results conference.

Degenhart did not elaborate on the nature of the investments, other than to say they will be made to support growth, particularly in replacement business in North America and the BRIC countries-Brazil, Russia, India and China.

In the past 18 months, Conti has committed more than $1.3 billion to several projects:

• $500 million for a car/light truck tyre plant in Sumter, South Carolina, where the firm expects to break ground before the end of March;
• $320 million for a car/light truck tyre plant in Kaluga, Russia;
• $224 million to expand car/light and medium truck tyre capacity at its Mount Vernon, Illinois plant;
• $210 million to double the size of the car and truck tyre plant in Camaçari, Brazil by 2015; and
• $71 million through 2013 to expand cross-ply truck tyre capacity and add capacity for radial car and truck tyres at the plant in Modipuram, India, which the company acquired in early 2011 from Modi Rubber Ltd. for about $25 million.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)

Announcements from Continental