RAYONG, Thailand—Continental A.G. has selected a site in Thailand's Rayong Province for its next tire plant, a car and light truck tire factory.
Continental expects to break ground this year and should bring the plant on stream by 2019. The German tire maker said the factory will produce 4 million tires a year by 2022 and will employ 900 workers in the start-up phase.
Conti is budgeting $265 million for the first phase of the project, which will help the tire maker strengthen its presence in Thailand and the Asia/Pacific Rim markets, according to Philipp von Hirschheydt, head of Conti's APAC passenger/light truck tire business unit.
The plant site and surrounding infrastructure would allow for a potential expansion of up to 25 million tires annually over time, Conti said.
"This plant will strongly support our planned business growth in both original equipment and replacement business for passenger and light truck tires and further establish our customer relations in both segments," Hirschheydt said.
"We want to benefit from the growth potential in this region in the replacement market and are confident that our local production will also enable a closer cooperation with new customers to further extend our position in these markets," he added.
Nikolai Setzer, the member of Conti's executive board in charge of corporate purchasing and the Tire Division, said the Thailand plant is a major step toward finding a balance within the company's global manufacturing footprint.