By Jane Ho, Crain News Service
LIAONING, China (March 26, 2015) — Goodyear is expanding its four-year-old plant in Pulandian, Liaoning Province.
The Akron-based tire maker said in China that it is investing $135 million through 2017 to add capacity for 2.08 million car tires a year.
The project will include capacity for 48,000 run-flat tires a year, the company said, and occupy 1.25 million square feet.
The added output will expand capacity by nearly a quarter to 10.5 million units annually. The company did not comment on the expansion's effect on employment.
Goodyear opened the plant in 2011 after relocating manufacturing there from a factory in Dalian proper. It added capacity for medium radial truck tires in 2012.
The tire maker said it was compelled to relocate the factory because it had become “land locked” in urban Dalian.
The expansion project will encompass 46 new sets of machinery and 12 upgraded sets.
Jane Ho is a correspondent for European Rubber Journal, a United Kingdom-based sister publication of Tire Business.