Continental Tire the Americas officially broke ground earlier this week at the 1,000-acre site of its new tire plant near Clinton, Miss.
The tiremaker will invest $1.4 billion for the facility, which will employ 2,500 people when it reaches full capacity in the next decade. The new plant will be located at a greenfield site in Hinds County. Continental expects to begin physical construction of the plant in 2018, with production slated to start by the end of 2019.
The ceremony was attended by federal, state and local governmental officials, as well as Continental execs, including Nikolai Setzer, member of Continental’s Executive Board and head of its global tire business, who said, “Building this new facility in Mississippi is a critical part to our growth strategy for Continental Tire, known as Vision 2025. This is the first new plant, globally, for the truck tire business in more than 10 years. We are convinced that the state of Mississippi provides the best options for Continental to grow our tire business.”
Continental’s business growth in commercial vehicle tires has consistently exceeded the market over the last five years and the company said it continues to see customer demand for its products – both new truck and bus tires as well as retreads, which are growing beyond the company’s existing capacity.
Not including the planned investment in Mississippi, Continental has invested nearly $2.5 billion in the past decade for manufacturing, technology, facilities and product development to grow its tire business in the Americas. Part of this investment has been the expansion of Continental’s tire plant in Mt. Vernon, Ill and the new Sumter, S.C. facility. The Tire Division currently has 24 production and development locations worldwide.
