TRELLEBORG, Sweden—Trelleborg A.B. is moving forward with a previously disclosed expansion plan at its OTR and farm tire plant in Otrokovice, Czech Republic, according to a company spokeswoman.
Trelleborg took over the Otrokovice plant as part of its 2016 acquisition of Czech-based CGS Holding and its Mitas tire operations.
Trelleborg Wheel Systems President Paolo Pompei made public Trelleborg's intention last June to expand the plant as part of the company's decision to add earthmover tires to its OTR product portfolio.
"We recently got approval from the local authorities to start building and the construction work will start within a short time," communications manager Karin Larsson said March 13 in a statement to European Rubber Journal, a sister publication of Tire Business.
The company needs higher capacity utilization for its radial agricultural tires and OTR tires, Ms. Larsson wrote, without elaborating further. She also stated that another expansion project at a Trelleborg plant in Ruma, Serbia, was "basically completed."
"Here we are now manufacturing all our tire brands—Trelleborg, Mitas, Maximo and Cultor—and that is in fact the only facility that does so," she noted.
Trelleborg previously announced that the Ruma expansion would increase capacity by 50 percent at the facility.
Trelleborg did not provide investment information for either project.