Tire makers commit more than $6.5 billion in capex

After a run of a few lean years in terms of capacity expansion investments, tire makers around the world loosened the purse strings a bit, committing more than $6.5 billion toward new plants, additional capacity and technology upgrades during the last 12 months.

That sum, spread among a couple dozen individual projects, is $2 billion more than capital expenditures committed to by tire makers the previous 12 months, Rubber News research shows, as well as greater than spending tracked in 2020-21 and 2019-20.

The projects monitored by and reported on by Rubber News collectively represent new annual capacities of more than 23 million passenger tire units, 2 million-plus truck/bus tire units and several thousand additional tons of off-road tires.

Included in the investment are new factories: Nokian Tyres P.L.C.'s in Romania; Petlas Tyre Industry's in Turkey; and Qingdao Sentury's in Morocco.

Of the $6.5 billion tracked, more than 40 percent—$2.85 billion—is earmarked for projects in North America and 15 percent for Europe.

In terms of continuing capital investment, most of the two dozen larger tire companies that report their figures publicly ramped up capex spending last year over fiscal 2021.

On average, the reporting firms' capex spending was at 6.9 percent of sales, up marginally over the 6.5 percent reported in fiscal 2021. The range covers a span from 0.1 percent (Casumina) to 16.4 percent (Sailun Group).

Collectively, spending on research and development increased by most of the firms that report such activity, but not at the pace of sales growth. Therefore average R&D spending for 20 companies this year was 3.5 percent, down from 3.8 percent a year ago.

The single largest investment disclosed since August 2022 is the $1.6 billion budgeted by Hankook Tire & Technology Co. Ltd. for its 7-year-old plant in Clarksville, Tenn. The project calls for passenger and light truck tire capacity to double to 10 million units a year and to establish capacity for 1 million radial truck/bus tires a year.

The expansions will create as many as 1,000 new jobs in the Clarksville region, Hankook said, pushing employment in the region to around 2,000.

The investment ties into Hankook's corporate growth goal to essentially double in size by 2030.

Bridgestone Corp. also ranks on the list, committing $2 billion over the coming several years at 20 factories worldwide to "reinforce its structure for producing premium products," the company said in its recently released 2023 Integrated Report.

For passenger tires, Bridgestone said it will focus investments on production of larger-rim-diameter tires and products equipped with the group's Enliten "light-weighting" technology.

Other projects in Bridgestone's investment package include:

• $550 million at the Warren County, Tenn., truck/bus tire plant, to boost capacity by 3,000 units a day and upgrade the plant's technology.
• $250 million through 2026 to renovate and expand capacity at a multi-product tire plant in Belen de Heredia, Costa Rica. The project will result in a 36-percent increase in production capacity to nearly 5 million units a year, with an emphasis on manufacturing improvements for tires for premium applications, including tires for electric/hybrid vehicles.
• $53 million toward boosting capacity at its Camacari, Brazil, passenger/light truck tire plant.
• $75 million over three years to increase capacity and upgrade technology at a tire plant in Pune, India. The project is expected to boost capacity by up to 12 percent at the 10-year-old plant, which now has capacity for 10,700 passenger, light and medium truck tires per day.
• $60 million toward boosting capacity by 16 percent for tread rubber at the firm's Bridgestone Bandag L.L.C. tread rubber plant in Abilene, Texas.

Michelin North America Inc. has committed $325 million over five years for projects in the U.S. and Canada.

In the U.S., Michelin will invest $100 million to expand capacity for rubber tracks at the Junction City, Iowa, plant of its Camso off-highway business unit. The plant opened just three years ago. Michelin did not disclose the plant's capacity nor say how much it expects that capacity to increase.

In Canada, Michelin is committing $225 million to accelerate sustainable mobility initiatives at the firm's three plants there and improve the company's environmental footprint.

The investment will cover the installation of new technologies and equipment at Michelin's three tire plants in Nova Scotia in a bid to respond to market evolution, including converting production to tires for the growing electric vehicle (EV) segment and larger rim-size tires for passenger and light truck vehicles, as well as truck tires with improved fuel efficiency.

A key part of the multi-year plan is a $104 million expansion of Michelin's Bridgewater passenger and light truck tire plant, which will add more than 70 positions to the work force there. Michelin's other plants are in Granton-Pictou (passenger and light truck tires) and Waterville (medium truck tires).

Nokian Tyres P.L.C. has budgeted nearly $900 million for a pair of projects deemed necessary after the Finnish tire maker opted to divest its factory in Russia in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The plant in Vsevolzhsk was Nokian's largest factory, with a rated capacity of 16 million tires a year.

The company broke ground May 11 in Oradea, Romania, on a factory with an annual rated capacity of 6 million car and light truck tires. That project is valued at $700 million, with the Romanian government chipping in an additional $100 million. The new factory is slated to begin commercial-scale production in 2025.

Nokian also is committing $174 million to double capacity at its 4-year-old plant in Dayton, Tenn., to 4 million tires annually and add a 350,000-sq.-ft. warehouse adjacent to the factory to help serve the firm's "growing volume of customers in the Sun Belt."

Nexen Tire Corp. has secured funding valued at $322 million that it will put toward expanding production capacity at its 4-year-old plant in Zatec, Czech Republic. The South Korean tire maker said it intends to double the plant's annual capacity to over 12 million tires by year-end 2024, according to filings with the Korean Stock Exchange.

The project also will include expanding warehouse storage capacity at the plant by 220,000 units, bringing the capacity to 486,000 units.

In addition, Nexen disclosed earlier this year that it plans to build a factory in the U.S. in the coming years, with production starting in 2028 or 2029.

Nexen Tire Americas CEO Brian Yoonseok told Tire Business earlier this year that Nexen is evaluating sites in eight Southeastern states as possible locations for the factory, which likely would be built with a nameplate capacity of 30,000 tires a day.

The company indicated it wanted to have a site selected by the second half of 2023. No investment figure has been disclosed for that project.

Additional investments, by company alphabetically, include:

Aeolus Tyre Co. Ltd. is investing about $85 million to add 80,000 units of annual capacity for giant tires and special engineering radial tires at the firm's flagship factory in Jiaozuo, Henan, China.

Balkrishna Industries Ltd. budgeted $45 million toward boosting capacity by as much as 80 percent for OTR/earthmoving tires at its Waluj, India, plant, to 55,000 metric tons a year.

Ceat Ltd. is investing $45 million at a plant in Ambarnath, India, to boost capacity 10 percent for radial off-highway tires to 55 metric tons per day.

Goodyear has budgeted $125 million over five years to modernize production of truck and OTR tires at its 77-year-old tire plant in Topeka, Kan., and $200 million to boost capacity for passenger tires at the Kunshan, China, plant of its Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co. subsidiary.

The project in China is set to unfold in two phases, one to add 1.1 million units of new capacity for radial tires and a second to add a separate production line for tires for electric and hybrid vehicles, with a projected capacity of 2.6 million units a year.

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. is investing $113 million for a two-phase expansion of its passenger tire plant in Banmore, India, raising the factory's capacity for radial passenger tires by 31 percent to 5.1 million units a year in the first phase, and then another 31 percent to nearly 6.7 million units by April 2024.

Turkey's Petlas Tyre Industry & Trade Co. has budgeted $360 million to build a separate factory adjacent to its existing plant in Kirsehir in central Turkey, a project that will raise the firm's capacity for passenger car and light truck tires by 42 percent to 340,000 metric tons a year.

Construction is set to start later this year and be completed by 2025 or 2026. The new plant will be equipped with "state-of-the-art" tire production technologies and, once operational, will turn the Kirsehir facility into "one of the largest 'mega' tire factories in Europe."

Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is investing $113 million over the coming two years at its Mexican factory primarily to boost capacity for larger-rim-diameter tires and tires for electric vehicles that will be sold in the U.S. The upgrade will increase capacity by more than 1 million tires a year, Pirelli said, to 8.5 million units and create 400 new jobs by the time it's completed.

Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. is planning to move forward with the construction of a $297 million tire factory project in Morocco following receipt of a "certificate of overseas investment of enterprises" from local authorities in Qingdao, China.

In a June 5 filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Chinese tire maker said it had completed registration of Sentury Tire (Morocco) Co. in Tangier, Morocco. Construction on the plant, near Tangier, was expected to begin in July and take 18 months to complete, Sentury said.

Once fully operational, the plant will have capacity to produce 6 million car and light truck tires per year, with output in the first year reaching 3.6 million units.

Sumitomo Rubber Industries will invest $213 million in its tire factory in Fazenda Rio Grande, Brazil, to boost capacity for car and light truck tires by nearly 28 percent to 23,000 units per day by April 2024, and double truck/bus tire capacity to 2,200 units per day by early 2025.

SRI's investment should generate 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.

China's Wanli Tire Co. Ltd. is planning to upgrade a truck/bus tire plant in Guangzhou City and expand the site's capacity by 60 percent to 24 million units a year. The company submitted an environmental impact report earlier this year for an $85 million "upgrade and technical transformation project" for public endorsement.