By: Staff Writer
February 07, Colombo (LNW): Continental has announced a significant expansion of its manufacturing capabilities in Sri Lanka. With a €13 million investment aimed at enhancing the pre-production capacities of its Kalutara plant.
It aims to make its material handling tyres production self-sufficient, signaling a robust step towards optimizing its global manufacturing footprint.
Continental is expanding the global manufacturing footprint of its specialty tires business area in Sri Lanka.
By further enhancing local pre-production capacities, its Kalatura plant in the future may produce material handling self-sufficiently. This ensures an optimised manufacturing process and limits cross-country dependencies in the logistic supply chain.
Continental will be investing around 13 million euros over the next three years, creating around 200 additional jobs. Customers will benefit from better product availability due to the optimised supply chain.
The investment in Sri Lanka is part of Continental’s ongoing efforts to advance innovative technologies and sustainable products and services throughout the tyre value chain.
This includes the procurement of sustainable materials and the recycling of end-of-life tyres, underscoring the company’s commitment to sustainability and innovation in its operations.
Business Field Material Handling Head Klaus Framenau said, “Our Kalutara plant is an integral part of our global production network. The most recent investment decision is a testament to that. At Kalutara we manufacture tailor-made specialty tyre products for our customers worldwide.”
“Continental’s material handling business field is looking to further expand its share of the growth markets worldwide. We continue to systematically grow our specialty tires business, as laid out in our Vision 2030 strategy program,” he added.
Since 2009, the Kalutara plant has produced industrial solid tires for forklifts and other material handling vehicles. The plant manufactures press-on-band tires and super elastic tires with a strong focus on serving American, Asian and selected European markets.
With its specialty tire brands Continental, General Tire and Barum that cover a wide range of applications, Continental serves the many different requirements of its customers worldwide.
Continental’s specialty tires business area develops, produces and markets a great variety of different tire applications. From agricultural, earth-moving and port vehicle tires to material handling, bicycle, motorcycle and racing tires.
It also offers tailor made digital tire solutions that enhance its customer’s efficiency, helping to sustainably reduce their operational costs.
Continental is continuously working to advance innovative technologies and sustainable products and services along the entire tire value chain, from the procurement of sustainable materials to the recycling of end-of-life tire.
