Sailun Tire has plans to establish a $240 million manufacturing plant in Mexico, the China-based tire maker announced last month.
The company’s Singapore subsidiary entered into a joint venture agreement with TD International Holding to build the facility that will have a yearly production capacity of 6 million semi-steel radial tires and potentially expand to have an annual production capacity of 1.65 million all-steel radial tires.
Sailun has manufacturing sites in China and Vietnam. The upcoming Mexico site will be the company's first North American site.
Sailun did not say where in Mexico the factory will be located nor when construction or production will begin. Sailun did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This expansion will not only allow us to meet the increasing demand for our products but also enable us to design, test and now build products for North America, in North America,” Peter Koszo, President North America, Sailun Tire, said in a statement.
Automotive is one of the dominant industries in Mexico, with transportation equipment manufacturing as one of the sectors with the most foreign direct investment. Last year, BMW announced plans to invest approximately $858 million to ready its San Luis Potosí factory to build the next generation of its Neue Klasse EV model.
EV maker Tesla also announced plans last year to build a gigafactory in Monterrey, a Mexico city with roughly 50 industrial parks and where over 1,000 companies like Mercedes Benz have a facility.
While Tesla is laying the groundwork to begin construction on the Monterrey plant, the company wants to understand what the global economy is like before they “go full tilt” on the gigafactory, CEO Elon Musk told investors on an earnings call in October.
