Continental Tire

Continental Tire is revving its engine in preparation for amping up tire production in the Americas. The industry leader opened its third U.S. tire plant in Clinton, Mississippi, in October 2019. At full capacity, the plant is slated to produce an annual volume of 750,000 truck tires in its first phase.

Continental Tires is a Germany-based global conglomerate that employs more than 230,000 people worldwide, including 50,000 people at its tire plants. Continental pioneers techniques and services for the sustainable and connected mobility of people and products. Founded in 1871, Continental offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation.

The company’s portfolio includes a range of services including tires, digital monitoring, fleet management, telematics solutions, sensors, advanced driving assistance systems, Electronic Logging Devices and Electronic Control Units .

Continental l plans for its central Mississippi plant to become its flagship U.S. facility.. The plant is part of Continental’s long-term global project, Vision 2025. Continental is bringing a $1.45 billion capital investment to the area and expects to employ 2,500 workers in the next nine years, representing the largest economic development announcement for the area in decades..

The plant’s 5.2 million-square-foot area includes an industrial building and operations center, a 32-acre parking lot, 52.75 acres of dry detention ponds, a 14.5-acre wet detention pond and 9,500 linear feet of new railroad spur. The company also has constructed a new state-of-the-art, 23,000-square-foot Employee Training Center, which opened in 2018.

“This is Continental’s first new plant dedicated to trucks in the world,” said Paul Williams, executive vice president of Continental’s Commercial Vehicle Tires division for the Americas. “We have seen tremendous growth in this area of our business, and the addition of this production facility will help us continue to satisfy customer orders.”

Continental officials said customer demand in the commercial vehicle segment has grown globally in the past 10 years, with increased demand for tire retreads and new tires for buses and trucks. Due to this demand, the company succeeded in its plans to employ 250 by the start of 2021, and it will add 250 employees each year until it reaches its full employment goal of 2,500 workers by 2028. Production employees will make $40,000 a year on average.

When asked about his job, Dejaun Williams, who has worked at the plant since April 2019, responded, “I like it. There’s a company code of conduct and people seem to follow it. There’s a lot more teamwork here than other jobs I’ve worked at.”

“Continental Tire represents an extraordinarily strong partnership.Economic development is very much a team sport. Locating a large company such as Continental requires strong teamwork and trust on all sides, and this was a great example of strong teamwork between so many different partners, and it’s something we’re really proud of,” said Gena Lentz, Mississippi Development Authority director of Foreign Investment.