PANAMA CITY, Panama (July 14, 2016) — Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C. is ramping up for the launch of its expanded OTR and agricultural tire product ranges in North America, starting Aug. 1, according to Fedérico Jiménez, manager, the Americas for Conti's Commercial Specialty Tire (CST) business unit.
The launch coincides with the expiration of a 10-year General-brand licensing agreement covering OTR and farm tires with Titan International Inc.
Conti is planning a broader, more public launch of its expanded OTR portfolio at this year's MINExpo 2016, scheduled for Sept. 26-28 in Las Vegas, Mr. Jiménez told Tire Business during the Latin American & Caribbean Tyre Expo in Panama City.
Conti's OTR portfolio predominantly now focuses on port-handling and similar-style tires, Mr. Jiménez said, but the company plans to have a range of underground mining tires on display at MINExpo. http://www.minexpo.com The company will broaden the range steadily after that, he said, including into above-ground mining and construction equipment tires.
Continenal earlier this year disclosed it was gearing up to bring certain SKUs of its ContiEarth radial mining tire line to North America and introduce a range of General-brand farm tires.
The tire maker has designated factories in Malaysia, Romania and South Africa for OTR tire production and recently disclosed plans to invest $56 million at its plant Lousada, Portugal, for radial agricultural tires.
The company also recently announced the promotion of Enno Straten to managing director of the CST unit, succeeding Michael Märtens, who left the company to pursue interests outside the industry.
Mr. Jiménez, who's based in Fort Mill, S.C., reports to Mr. Straten.
In addition, Conti earlier this year hired longtime tire industry veteran T. Shawn Rasey to be its global business development manager, earthmover, tasked with managing the international expansion of Conti's earthmover activities.