ROME—Pirelli Tyre S.p.A., with the support of Egypt's Ministry of Investment, is exploring a possible expansion of Pirelli's Alexandria Tire Co. radial truck tire subsidiary.
To that end, Pirelli Vice President Alberto Pirelli and Ashraf Salman, Egyptian minister of investment, signed a memorandum of understanding this week in Rome covering a potential investment of about $107 million in the expansion and further technological upgrade of its factory.
The investment is expected to take place over a 36 month period, Pirelli said, when the conditions for the launch of the expansion activities have been met. The project calls for a 35 percent increase in capacity, to about 1.15 million tires a year.
Pirelli owns more than 90 percent of Alexandria Tire.
The memorandum of understanding was signed following a meeting of the Italian-Egyptian Business Council in Rome, in the presence of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, the Egyptian minister of trade and industry, and Carlo Calenda, the Italian deputy minister for economic development in charge of foreign trade, Pirelli said.
When completed, the investment would result in up to 250 new jobs at Alexandria Tire as well as additional employment opportunities in related services, and an annual production increase of about 300,000 radial truck tires, Pirelli said.
The tire maker first acquired a controlling interest in Alexandria Tire in 1999 and since then has has invested roughly $200 million in the venture, including $65 million in 2008 to boost capacity then by 50 percent.
The plant employs about 1,200 and produces 850,000 truck tires a year.
Pirelli originally helped engineer and establish the factory in 1995.