Continental signs purchase option for additional real estate at Hefei tire plant in China

• Chinese delegation led by Deputy Mayor of Hefei, Han Bing
• Burkhardt Koeller, Chairman of the Management Board of Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH signed for the tire manufacturer
• Option holds out prospects of expanding capacity for car, light truck and bicycle tires
• Systematic implementation of long-term growth strategy, Vision 2025

Signing of Burkhardt Koeller together with Han Bing, Deputy Mayor of Hefei

Hanover, August 1, 2016. Continental today signed a long-term option to purchase additional real estate at the company’s Hefei tire plant in China. An 11-strong Chinese delegation made up of high-ranking representatives of various committees and authorities travelled to Hanover specially to conclude the agreement. The delegation was led by the Deputy Mayor of Hefei, Han Bing, who signed the memorandum of understanding, as did Burkhardt Koeller, Chairman of the Management Board of Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH and Head of Controlling at Continental’s Tire Division. “In line with our long-term growth strategy, Vision 2025, we have been very systematic in expanding production capacities at our Hefei plant in China,” said Koeller at the signing ceremony. “This purchase option for additional plots of land puts us in a position to almost double the amount of space available to us, which brings us in valuable long-term latitude in our planning,” he added. “On this basis, we can now consider some very different scenarios and then act in accordance with actual market developments and the way our sales develop in the various product segments.”

Signing of Michael Egner, Hefei Plant Manager together with Wang Jie, Deputy Director Administration Committee of Hefei State Hi-tech Industry Development Zone

Continental opened the tire plant in Hefei back in 2011. Since then, the company has continuously expanded its annual passenger car and light truck tire production capacities on the land it already owned to a current level of approximately five million units. With this additional investment of EUR 250 million, the stage is set for further expansion phases that will take annual output as high as 14 million units. At the same time, expansion of bicycle tire production to 13 million units a year by 2025 is underway. In all, since the original groundbreaking ceremony, Continental has already scheduled investments of more than EUR 500 million at the Hefei plant.

Plant Hefei