Mexico quake spares tire operations - ANDELLAC

By Stephen Downer, Special to Tire Business

MEXICO CITY — A 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck central Mexico Sept. 19 and claimed several hundred lives appears to have spared the country's tire retailing and manufacturing industry, according to the country's national dealers association.

“We made contact with our members on Sept. 19 and 20, and fortunately they reported no loss of life” among employees, Magda Olivia Espinosa Álvarez, ANDELLAC'S manager, told Tire Business by email Sept. 25.

ANDELLAC stands for Asociación Nacional de Distribuidores de Llantas y Plantas Renovadoras A.C.

Ms. Espinosa said the only reports the association had received at that point were of “light-to-medium” damages to tire retail outlets in the several states most impacted by the temblor, including Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla and the State of Mexico.

She added, however, that some members had asked for the names of specialist engineers, bringing up the possibility that some premises would remain closed until they could be declared structurally fit.

Other ANDELLAC members had offered their premises as earthquake relief aid collection points, Ms. Espinosa said.

Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged as the quake rippled across the region, according to news reports. But the nine tire factories in full operation in the country seem to have escaped unscathed.

The Bridgestone Americas light vehicle tire factory, which employs 900 operators in Cuernavaca, 50 miles south of Mexico City, was the closest to the earthquake's epicenter — on the border between the states of Puebla and Morelos.

A Bridgestone spokeswoman in Mexico City told Tire Business the plant suffered only superficial damage and was operating normally.

Stephen Downer is a Mexico-based freelance writer who covers that country and Latin America for Tire Business and its Latin America e-newsletter.