Tire makers spending $8.6bn on capacity and R&D expansions

Rubber & Plastics report

Akron, Ohio - The world's major tire makers committed at least $8.6 billion (€6.7bn) in the past year towards new and expanded capacities and research capabilities - exceeding by about $600 million the total budgeted in 2012-13.

That amount of planned capital expenditures spending ranks as the fourth largest 12-month total that Tire Business - a sister publication of ERJ and Rubber & Plastics News - has tracked over the past 21 years.

South Korean manufacturers Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. and Nexen Tire Corp. and India's Apollo Tyres Ltd. top the list of announcements this year with billion-dollar-plus commitments.

Hankook's $1.3-billion budget is for its car and light truck tire plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, and an R&D centre in South Korea.

Nexen's spending of $1.1 billion is for a consumer tire factory it plans to build in the Slovak Republic, while Apollo has budgeted $1 billion for a plant in Hungary and modernisations in India.

The spending announced in the past year was spread fairly evenly among the three major continents, with $2.77 billion committed to projects in Asia, $2.4 billion for Europe and $2 billion for North America.