ACCORDING to news from Asia, Pirelli intends to develop its factory in China’s Shandong Province into the largest facility it operates anywhere in the world. Singapore’s The Business Times quotes Pirelli Asia-Pacific CEO Giuseppe Cattaneo as stating “China is going to become the main production plant for all our Asia-Pacific markets. This is absolutely confirmed. It (the Yanzhou factory) is getting bigger and bigger. I believe in a short while, it will be the biggest Pirelli production plant in the world.”
Currently the facility produces five million passenger car tyres and 1.2 million truck and bus radials; a second plant is now being outfitted with machinery, and when this is completed in mid-2012 it will double passenger car tyre output and also enable Pirelli to produce one million motorcycle tyres per annum in China. Cattaneo said that “in terms of employee and production capacity in metric tonnes, it will also be the biggest plant.” He added that 40 per cent of this increased output will be exported to the US.
Source: Tyrepress