Sentury to Set up USD 500 Million Tire Plant in Georgia

Sentury Tire has announced that it will be setting up a USD 500 million tire manufacturing facility in Georgia, United States. The company had narrowed its choice for a possible site to two locations; the site that was finally selected in LaGrange, Georgia and one in Tennessee. Though the company already had a distribution center in Memphis, Tennessee, it opted for the site in Georgia.

Sentury Tire Americas is a subsidiary of Chinese tire manufacturer, Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd., which is part of a major corporation in eastern China that specializes in rubber trading, tire wholesaling and manufacturing. Though details of the deal are yet to be announced, the company apparently plans to make 10 million tires on an annual basis at the plant and would create 600 jobs in its first phase, which could begin in 2017.

Many Asian tire manufacturers are setting up base in the United States in view of the tariffs that have been imposed for tires that are imported from countries like China, Sri Lanka and India. Hankook will be setting up a USD 800 million plant in Clarksville, Tennesseee while Kumho plans to spend over USD 450 million on expansion of its facility in Macon.

Qingdao Sentury CEO Lanny Lin has said the company’s U.S. plant would have the latest technology and will be heavily automated like the company’s “smart factory” in Thailand, which can make 12 million Landsail tires in a year. The company already makes 15 million tires at its Qingdao factory in China, factory that has entirely automated production lines.

Sentury, which took up tire production only in 2009, soon rose to become one of the top 75 tire makers in the world with USD 314 million in sales in 2014.