Kumho Tire has selected Opole in Poland as the site for its European plant. The decision is part of the company’s strategy to expand its global production footprint and accelerate growth in the European market.

The European facility is scheduled to begin initial operations in August 2028, pending investment and regulatory approval. The first phase will support an annual production capacity of six million tires, with phased expansions planned according to market demand. The total investment is valued at US$587m.

Kumho evaluated several European countries as potential locations for the new plant, assessing factors such as site suitability, sales growth potential, investment stability, profitability and available incentives.

Continue reading Kumho Tire selects Poland for European manufacturing plant at Tire Technology International.

Avon Tyres says it has completed the full redevelopment of its iconic Cobra Chrome range, reclaiming its whitewall heritage and reviving one of the brand’s most recognizable motorcycle tires. The move comes four years after Avon was integrated into Goodyear’s motorcycle brand portfolio alongside Dunlop.

Cobra Chrome is Avon’s flagship tire for cruiser and custom motorcycles, and a key part of the brand’s updated product strategy. The range includes 77 SKUs, including 14 white-sidewall sizes, reflecting Avon’s heritage in the custom and classic motorcycle segments.

The redevelopment of the Cobra Chrome range follows a broader industrial upgrade across Avon’s motorcycle business.

Continue reading Avon reintroduces Cobra Chrome whitewall tires after full redevelopment at Tire Technology International.

On December 20, 2025, the Nokian Tyres factory in Oradea, Romania, produced its one millionth tire of the year, meeting its annual production target.

“I am very proud of our entire team for their hard work in reaching this milestone,” said Nokian Tyres president and CEO Paolo Pompei. “It is a strong testament to our commitment to customers across Europe, enhancing our service level and delivering innovative products that ensure safety and comfort for drivers in all conditions.”

Nokian Tyres’ Romanian factory

The factory in Romania was inaugurated in September 2024 and started tire deliveries in March 2025.

Continue reading Nokian Tyres’ Romania factory reached its 2025 target of one million tires at Tire Technology International.

Pyrum Innovations (Pyrum) and Thermo Lysi have signed a €2m (US$2.3m) engineering contract, the first since a construction permit was granted at the beginning of January 2025 for the development a Pyrum waste recycling plant in Greece.

Pyrum states that the engineering of the plant will begin shortly and is expected to take six months. Thermo Lysi added that it is currently engaged in financial discussions, including talks regarding EU funding, that could cover part of the cost.

Both companies have decided to plan detailed engineering before the final financing of the project is finalized in order to prepare for the next steps of the project development, ensuring the project remains on schedule for the next development phase.

Continue reading Pyrum and Thermo Lysi sign €2m engineering contract at Tire Technology International.

Digital transformation and industrial automation specialist Rockwell Automation will showcase its extensive portfolio of digital tools, advanced software and connected technologies at this year’s Tire Technology Expo, taking place on March 4-6 in Hannover, Germany.

The company will be exhibiting at booth 9044, where tire industry machine builders and end users will be ale to speak with Rockwell tire industry consultants about critical outcomes and the technologies that will support and enable them, including modernizing production operations through advanced solutions and services. The company’s flagship solutions span from manufacturing execution systems (MES) and uptime optimization with artificial intelligence (AI) to enhanced quality through traceability and digital threads and logistics with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

Continue reading Rockwell Automation to exhibit at Tire Technology Expo 2025 at Tire Technology International.

Bridgestone Corporation has announced it is to make investments to expand capacity in three passenger car tire plants in Japan – the Hikone, Tosu and Tochigi plants – that are the main production bases for high rim diameter tires for cars in the premium segment.

The collective investment will be approximately ¥27bn (US$174.8m) with expansion set to start from the beginning of 2025 and be completed by the end of 2028. The strategic investment is expected to ramp up total production across these three plants by approximately 3,000 tires per day, for tires 20in and larger, with demand for these tires expected to grow, according to Bridgestone.

Continue reading Bridgestone to expand three passenger car tire plants in Japan at Tire Technology International.

Linglong Tire is investing ¥4.62bn (US$645m) to increase tire production capacity at its facility in Serbia.

The company says the project aims to increase the output of high-performance radial tires, including 800,000 tires for buses and trucks, 150,000 for farm vehicles, 50,000 for engineering vehicles and 100,000 refurbished tires. The facility is also forecast to produce 6,000 tons of liquid reclaimed rubber.

There are also plans to build a 24MW distributed solar power station at the plant to reduce its carbon emissions.

The first phase of the Serbian plant, which began trial production in the first half of 2023, has a planned output of 13.82 million tires of various types a year, Linglong says.

Continue reading Linglong Tire expands Serbian facility to increase radial tire production at Tire Technology International.

Michelin North America has made a US$50m investment in American Synthetic Rubber Company (ASRC) to construct a natural gas boiler facility. The new facility will reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The project entails the decommissioning and dismantling of the coal boilers at ASRC, and is driven by Michelin’s commitment to reducing ASRC’s environmental impact — less CO2, less water, less waste. It also includes the installation of a new boiler house with three natural gas boilers and a new boiler water treatment process.

The investment will also introduce more energy-efficient steam production through advanced natural gas boilers, a reverse osmosis feedwater system and heat recovery technologies.

Continue reading Michelin invests US$50m in natural gas boiler facility at ASRC at Tire Technology International.

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has invested in its manufacturing plant in Napanee, Ontario, with a view to meeting the demands of the electric vehicle (EV) and all-terrain tire industries.

The project, which began earlier this year and is expected to be completed by mid-2027, is supported by a multilevel public-private partnership. The expansion includes more than C$575m in investments from Goodyear, with contributions from the government of Canada, the government of Ontario and local municipalities.

The government of Canada is contributing C$44.3m through its Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to support both Goodyear and Canada’s broader automotive manufacturing supply chain.

Continue reading Goodyear expands Ontario plant to support EV and all-terrain tire production at Tire Technology International.

At its industrial site in Troyes, the tire maker has inaugurated its Cosmos machine – a new system for the production of agricultural tires, previously unseen across the Michelin group.

The factory has been host to the Cosmos project – an initiative to install a new agricultural tire production machine that is more efficient and more ergonomic. The Cosmos system is currently unique in the Michelin group, as it uses a new technology suited to the specific nature of agricultural tire production (size, weight, material technology, and so on).

Multi-disciplinary teams have worked with the site’s production operators to develop a solution tailored to their everyday use.

Continue reading Michelin inaugurates Cosmos machine for agricultural tire production at Tire Technology International.