AKRON (Oct. 30) — Goodyear said today it plans to close its tire manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas, as part of its previously announced strategy to stop supplying certain segments of the private label tire business.
The Tyler plant is one of eight U.S. tire plants the United Steelworkers union has been striking since Oct. 5. The Texas facility has estimated capacity to make 25,000 passenger and light truck tires a day, according to the company.
Goodyear said the closing will eliminate about 1,100 jobs, save about $50 million a year after taxes and result in a restructuring charge of between $155 million and $165 million after tax. The cash portion of the charges is estimated to be between $40 million and $50 million.
The closing will be timed to minimize the impact on Goodyear customers, said Jon Rich, president of Goodyear North American Tire.
When the company announced in June it would cut back its private label tire business, it said that correlating capacity reductions in North America would be based on plant performance, capabilities, cost savings opportunity and the focus on serving customers for its North American Tire business.
Goodyear said the Tyler plant mainly manufactures small-diameter passenger tires, a segment under pressure from low-cost imports. The company earlier announced it planned to reduce costs by more than $1 billion by 2008, including reduction in high-cost tire manufacturing capacity.
No new formal talks have been scheduled between Goodyear and the USW. Overall, 15,000 USW members are striking at 16 Goodyear facilities in the U.S. and Canada.