Nearly a year since it announced its intentions to build a new consumer tire plant in North America, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. on Friday will announce that it has selected Mexico as the location of the $550 million project, according to Reuters reports.
The announcement is said to include both Goodyear executives and Mexican government officials, and will be held in Mexico City on Friday, the reports said, citing “a person familiar with the matter.”
Goodyear has issued no official statement on the plant site selection or any official announcement program.
The Reuters report noted that Goodyear’s new plant, if finalized, would follow a string of significant investments in Mexico by major global automakers. Including a $1 billion car plant by Toyota, a $2.5 billion engine and transmission facility by Ford, and a $1 billion expansion of Volkswagen’s vehicle assembly plant in Mexico’s pueblo state.
Last May, when it first announced its plans to build a new tire plant in North America, Goodyear said the location would be the best location to support North America and Latin America customers.
The new tire plant, according to Goodyear, will service both replacement and OE markets, and will have an initial capacity of six million passenger and light truck/SUV tires per year. Plans call for the new facility to begin production sometime in 2017.
When completed, the new plant would be the tiremaker’s first in North America since its Napanee, Ontario, plant opened in 1990. Goodyear’s last greenfield U.S. plant, located in Lawton, Okla., opened in 1978.
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