En Englais: Conti expanding tread rubber capacity in Mexico

MORELIA, Mexico — Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C. is expanding tread rubber capacity at its plant in Morelia by 17 percent to 9,500 metric tons annually, the company disclosed recently.

Conti did not say what it's investing to support the expansion or what effect the expansion might have on the plant's employment, which stands at 70.

At the same time, Conti reported that the Morelia factory produced its 1 millionth tread on Oct. 29.

The plant, which began operations in December 2010, ships treads to customers in Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Peru and the U.S.

“We started operations in our plant almost five years ago,” said Arturo Cristiani, manager of the Morelia plant.

“Since then, we have been able to successfully overcome all the challenges we have been faced with, thanks to the synergy of the best materials, technologies, processes, systems and, most notably, the excellence of our team.”

Conti said reaching the 1 million tread milestone is proof of its commitment to excellence, continuous improvement and teamwork.

At the same time, the tire maker said it has signed two new ContiLifeCycle retreaders in the U.S. — Inter City Retreading Inc. of Elizabeth, N.J., and CMC Tire Inc. of St. George, Utah — and one in Canada — Quality Tire Service Ltd. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The new signings bring to 12 the number of independent retreaders using the LifeCycle system in North America. Conti also operates five plants in the U.S. under its BestDrive L.L.C. subsidiary.