Conti expands Chinese tire plant

Hefei, China – Continental signed contract in July for the phase 4 expansion of its plant in Hefei, Anhui province.

Located at the Hefei State High-Tech Industry Development Zone, phase 4 has 6 million unit annual capacity for passenger car tire with €258 million (2 billion yuan) investment earmarked, covering over a quarter of the Hefei site’s 667,000-square-metre total area.

By the time the plant’s all four phases come on stream in full operation in 2022, its total annual capacity would reach 20 million unit passenger car tires and 5 million unit two-wheeler tires.

This would bring the plant’s annual sales in 2022 to nearly €1.3 billion (10 billion yuan), according to the High-Tech Zone’s website.

This is Continental’s fastest-expanding site, said Philipp von Hirschheydt, executive vice president, passenger and light truck replacement tires, APAC, at the contract signing.

The Hefei site has become our center in China or even APAC, Hirschheydt added, and we are building it into our pivotal plant globally.