On Wednesday, November 2, Goodyear CEO Richard Kramer went to China to attend the ground-breaking ceremony on the $485 million expansion. The seaport city Dalian, sent its deputy mayor, Lu Li nto take part in the ceremony.
Over five years, Goodyear is spending $284 million to add 3 million units of annual capacity for passenger tires at its Dalian, China plant. The project will produce 250 jobs when positioned into full operation. The factory's capability is recorded as 10 million car tires and 500,000 truck tires annually, with an additional ability for another 2.08 million passenger tires being installed by year-end 2017.
The new plant will be finished in 2020, the company said.It will immediately begin making tires for the Asian market after the plant's completion. Goodyear said the spreading out would surge its productivity by about five million tires a year but declined to reveal the plant's present production capacity.
"This investment in our Pulandian factory speaks to our long-term strategy of pursuing sustainable growth in the Asia Pacific region and increasing Goodyear's presence in high-value segments of the global tire market that are growing at rates above the total industry where we can capture the value of our brand. The city of Dalian has been supportive of our developments here, and we look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership,"Kramer said in broadcasting the expansion.
Goodyear asserts that it was the first ever multinational tire manufacturing company to enter China.In 1994, it was first invested as a tire manufacturing plant in the same region. The company relocated fabrication to the new Pulandian factory in 2012 and released its new China Development Center on the Pulandian campus in 2015 to increase the speed and efficiency of developing high-quality premium tires for China-based auto manufacturers.Goodyear said the expansion will help it meet strong and growing market demand for premium, large-rim-diameter consumer tires in China and the Asia Pacific region.
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