Commercial tire maker Double Coin said the first shipment of truck tires produced from its new tire manufacturing plant in Thailand arrived last week at its California warehouse.
The facility, owned by Huayi Group (Thailand) Co. Ltd., is manufacturing truck, bus, and industrial (TBR) tires plus over-the-road (OTR) models for the North American market.
Double Coin said its plant operates in the Luckchai Rubber Industrial City Hub, which is located in Thailand’s Rayong Province. Built on a 3.6 million sq.-ft. site, it is set to manufacture over 1.5 million TBR and 50,000 OTR tires annually, the tire maker said.
The company said the entire plant is controlled by the MES (manufacturing execution system) software and is integrated with the SAP management system, which provides a level of automation that reduces the number of employees in the factory to half of what is needed in a traditional tire factory while ensuring the quality of the tires produced is more stable and reliable.
The tire-maker said this new factory is needed in order to meet the growing demand for Double Coin tires in North America, as well as to support “continued plans” to expand tire product line.
