Goodyear investing $200m in Cooper tire factory in China

Kunshan, China – Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co., part of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., is investing $200 million (€180 million) in its plant at Kunshan to increase production capacity for radial passenger car tires.

According to a 4 Jan statement by the Kunshan Development Zone, where Cooper has operated a tire plant since 2006, the project will include an upgrade of the existing production line and the construction of a new one.

As part of the plan, Cooper will upgrade the original production line to increase capacity by 1.1 million tires a year.

In addition, a new plant will be set up to produce 2.6 million high performance radial “silent tires” for new-energy vehicles.

The new round of investment will bring the total of Cooper’s investment in the plant to $500 million.

Citing Cooper officials, the statement added that the tire maker intends to build “a green tire production model workshop” to Industry 4.0 and ‘intelligent manufacturing 2025’ standards.

The workshop, said the Chinese-language statement, will adopt “an automated three-dimensional warehouse and an intelligent logistics system for transportation.”

According to ERJ’s Global Tire Report 2022, Cooper Kunshan has the capacity to manufacture 12 million units of passenger car and light vehicle tires per year.

Company officials declined to comment on the statement made by the Chinese local authorities.