Breaking ground at Continental's Korbach tire plant

ERJ staff report (TP)

Hanover / Korbach, Germany – A ground-breaking ceremony was held on 11 September to signal the start of construction of the new High Performance Technology Center (HPTC) at Continental’s Korbach plant in Germany.

The new production hall – effectively a “factory within a factory” – will take shape on a site measuring approximately 12,000 square metres. The building is expected to be completed by the end of May 2015.

Operations at the completed facility are scheduled to begin in July 2016 on two fronts. On the one hand, the HPTC will produce high-performance tires for ultra-sporty passenger cars “boasting an extremely high level of technological sophistication and powerful engines”. But the plan is also to drive forward development and optimisation of production processes from Korbach prior to subsequent introduction across other Continental tire plants.

Around 60 employees will be working in the new facility on the back of the €45 million investment. Continental increased the amount it had originally earmarked for the initiative by around €5 million in order to give the new facility even greater capability.

Continental said its worldwide special investment program, launched in 2011, will see its investment top €1 billion by the end of 2015.

Lothar Salokat, plant manager at Korbach, said: “We’re expecting to be able to produce around 350,000 tires annually once regular operation is underway [and] we’re talking in part about products for highly exacting requirements – i.e. for ultra-powerful vehicles. They include tires with diameters of 18 – 22 inches.”