Bridgestone to close Bari plant in Italy and relocate Shenyang plant in China

The Bari plant is one of eight Bridgestone tyre plants in Europe. The other tyre production facilities are located in Spain, France, Poland, and Hungary. The company expects the shutdown of the Bari plant operations within the first half of 2014. According to the company, this decision will not have any effect on its other existing entities in Italy, including Bridgestone Technical Centre Europe S.p.A. near Rome and its sales office in Agrate Brianza (Monza). Bridgestone says the overall EU tyre segment for cars went down by 13 % in comparison with 2011 and no recovery to pre-2011 volume is foreseen before 2020. The only segment with positive forecasts is the premium segment of the market, says the company.

In addition, Bridgestone announced that its Chinese subsidiary Bridgestone (Shenyang) Tire Co., Ltd. will build a new manufacturing facility in the Shenyang Chemical Industry Park as part of its relocation project. The Shenyang plant, currently located in Shenyang City in the Liaoning province, manufactures truck and bus tyres. The total investment is USD 299.7 million (~ EUR 230 million) and includes construction of the new plant and production equipment. The plant will have a production capacity of about 5,000 tyres per day and is scheduled to start up in 2014.