Dive Brief:
- Tire manufacturer Tin Thanh Group Americas is investing $68 million to establish its first U.S. facility in Fairfax, South Carolina, according to a March 14 press release.
- The Vietnam-based company will manufacture and retread large commercial vehicle tires, as well as oversee its commercial tire leasing program. Operations are set to begin in 2024.
- Tin Thanh Group intends to establish relationships with U.S. distributors and large-scale trucking operators, Keith Sernick, president and founder of State Street Advisers and counsel to Tin Thanh Group, told Manufacturing Dive.
Dive Insight:
Tin Thanh Group provides recycled energy and waste operations to serve the environment, energy, high-tech agriculture and technology markets.
In addition to establishing relationships in the U.S., some tire products will be exported to Europe and Southeast Asia, Sernick said.
The company’s more than 1-million-square-foot facility will span across 22 acres, Sernick said.
The South Carolina Coordinating Council for Economic Development, which approved job development credits for Tin Thanh Group’s project, allocated a $1 million Rural Infrastructure Fund grant to Allendale County to help with site preparation and infrastructure improvements costs.
"With the assistance of the Department of Commerce, the Southern Carolina Alliance and the officials at Allendale County, and the assistance of readySC, the decision was clear compared with the other locations that sought our project in the Southeast," Tin Thanh Group Americas CEO Tran Dinh Quyen said in a statement.
Quyen believes the U.S. is the natural next step for the company’s growth, Sernick said. The facility will create more than 1,000 administrative, operations and management jobs.
"We really have to build an entire team from scratch here in the United States," Sernick added. "So whatever you would have normally in a company...[human resources], you name it, we're gonna need it all."
Tin Thanh Group isn’t the only company investing in sustainable tire operations. Last year, Bridgestone Americas announced it was investing an additional $42 million to scale its sustainable tire production. The investment enabled the company to add up to 25,000 acres of farmland cultivation of guayule, a type of desert shrub that naturally produces rubber-rich latex.