Construction work is now well underway at Continental’s new greenfield plant in Rayong, Thailand. Since the appointment of general contractor, Thai Takenaka International, in mid-September, the site has developed significantly. Temporary site offices and the worker’s village are currently being erected, the pile cutting and the foundation works are in full swing. At the moment, around 450 workers are on-site, and that number is expected to increase to more than 1,600 in the next three months.
Investment in the facility will total around US$295.8m (€250m). Opening is scheduled for 2019. It will produce around four million passenger and light truck tires annually by 2022. Approximately 900 new jobs will be created in Thailand. The size of the site is 750,000m², which provides enough room for expansion of up to 25 million tires capacity per year. The plant will be outfitted with state-of-the-art technology, and will be Continental Tire’s most environmentally friendly factory.
“We are well on track with our greenfield project and today is an important milestone for us. We plan to finalize our hot preparation and mixing areas by the end of March 2018. Final completion of construction works will be at the end of 2018,” commented project leader, Vignesh Devasenapathy.
“In addition to the ongoing civil works, this year we have initiated the hiring process for key positions in the local team, which has expanded to around 25 employees. We will initiate another hiring period in early 2018 focusing on new employees for our production facilities. With a focus on the highest quality and efficiency standards, we will train new employees in the other Continental tire plants.”
December 7, 2017
