In an international telephone press conference yesterday, Pirelli SpA discussed its 2010 sales results in North and South America.
Pirelli chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera and Pirelli Tyre CEO Francesco Gori were on hand for the conference.
The Pirelli officials said the company experienced a 25% rise in sales in the U.S., Canada and Mexico last year, with Pirelli Tire North America posting sales of $630 million for the year. PTNA, they said, contributed about 10% of Pirelli Tyre’s total global sales of $6.3 billion.
Pirelli global sales were up nearly 20%, Gori said.
In South America, Pirelli posted 2010 sales of $2.2 billion, up 20% from 2009, the officers said. The region contributed 34% of Pirelli Tyre’s global sales.
Pirelli has seven plants in South America (one in Argentina, five in Brazil and one in Venezuela), which produced more than 400,000 tons of consumer and commercial tires for the region. All told, Gori noted, those seven plants represented 40% of the company’s total tire output.
As announced last year, Pirelli will invest $300 million in its Brazil plants between 2011 and 2013, with the aim of increasing production capacity. At present, Pirelli’s factories in Brazil account for approximately 90% of production in the region, and 35% of those tires are exported to OE and replacement market customers the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
In addition, construction had begun on Pirelli’s first factory in Mexico, in the city of Silao, where production is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2012. With an initial investment of $210 million, the plant will cover an area of approximately 120,000 square meters, generating 1,000 jobs.
