Continental Tire the Americas broke ground on its Sumter, S.C., facility expansion on Sept. 9, beginning Phase II at the plant.
“This announcement celebrates Continental’s trust in the Sumter facility to continue delivering quality products to our customers,” said Jochen Etzel, CEO of Continental Tire the Americas.
Phase II will add an additional 720,000 square feet to the one million-square-foot plant and add a new production hall and expanded warehouses for raw materials and finished goods. Kajima Building & Design Group, Inc. (KBD) has been hired as the general contractor of the nine-month construction project.
Continental also plans to increase tire production capacity from approximately four million units planned for 2016 to eight million units. The tiremaker also said it plans to more than double the jobs at the facility to a projected 1,600 employees.
With the expansion of the facility, Conti’s total investment in the Sumter project totals more than $500 million.
Phase I started construction in June 2012 and the one million square foot plant began production in October 2013.
