Continental has broken ground at greenfield facility in the province of Rayong in Thailand. Around four million passenger and light truck tires will be produced per year at the factory for the APAC region.
The 750,000m² site also provides enough space for future expansion for the manufacture of up to 25 million tires annually; offers a good infrastructure; is only 140km from the city of Bangkok and 60km from the deep-sea port in Laem Chabang; and is has several universities located nearby.
A celebratory ceremony was organized according to local Thai culture and was led by a Buddhist pharm. “For this greenfield plant we need to construct more than 2,500 piles with a depth of up to 14m in the ground. The piles are required to anchor the buildings in the soil. Once this is completed we will be ready to prepare the building foundations and to start the main construction works,” said Matthias Weiland, technical project manager of the plant.
“The first piling ceremony represents the initial milestone in the start of civil works at the site for the new greenfield passenger and light truck tire plant in Rayong, Thailand. I am honored to have the local pharm here at site and I would like to express my sincere ‘thank you’ for this first initial milestone, to the industrial park Hemaraj management, our local suppliers, as well as our engineering team at Continental who have made the on-time start of piling foundation laying possible,” commented Michael Egner, project leader.
