06/09/2011

• Strong demand has tyre plants running at full blast
• Winter tyre production underway
• Plans in place to build new and expand existing plants 

Hanover, June 9^th, 2011. In the passenger and light truck tyre plants at Continental, new tyres are currently rolling continually off the hot presses. The reason is that strong demand from the replacement and original equipment business has created a need for additional production.

As a result, around ten percent more passenger and light truck tyres will be produced this year compared with the previous year. Yet the additional capacities created in the plants are not yet sufficient to cover the predicted long-term demand completely. Continental is therefore launching an extensive investment programme. The plants in Mount Vernon / USA and Camacari /Brazil will be expanded with additional annual capacities of around four million each and the new plant in Hefei, China opened at the start of 2011, two months earlier than planned. In the European plants too, bottlenecks are being systematically removed, with production undergoing continuous expansion. Additional new tyre plants (Greenfields) are currently in the planning stage in the USA and Russia. These plans are set to increase production capacity significantly over the next few years to meet the rise in demand.

The rise in demand is affecting both summer and winter tyres.

The plants in Europe have therefore already begun producing products for the cold season, to offer drivers the required level of safety even in snow and ice. Continental is planning to produce around 124 million passenger and light truck tyres in 2011 – more than ever before.

With headquarters and the research and development centre in Hanover, Continental operates seven tyre plants in Europe alone. In Germany, the company produces around 20 million passenger and light truck tyres each year in the plants in Aachen (Nordrhein-Westfalen) and Korbach (Hessen), with additional plants in France, Portugal, Rumania, Slowakia and the Czech Republic.