MOUNT VERNON, Ill.—Continental Tire the Americas has added a second production shift for precured tread rubber at its Mount Vernon tire plant in anticipation of a 300 percent jump in retread production this year by ContiLifeCycle customers in North America.
The decision to boost production follows a double-digit percent increase in demand for the company's products last year, Tom Fanning, vice president of sales and marketing for commercial vehicle tires, said.
"We expect that growth to continue as the quality of ContiTread becomes better known in the market and as we continue to add new partners to our ContiLifeCycle retreader network."
Conti did not disclose detailed numbers as to the scale of output.
Continental added tread rubber production to the Mount Vernon plant a year ago as part of a plant to cut delivery times to its ContiLifeCycle retread customers in the U.S. Prior to that, Conti had supplied its licensed retread partners solely from a plant in Morelia, Mexico.
"We are achieving phenomenal outcomes by leveraging the team's 40 years of experience in truck tire manufacturing to improve the tread profiles and rubber mixing process," said John Barnes, head of ContiLifeCycle retreading for the Americas.
