A rubber plant in Mexico is set to receive multi-million dollar investment from Continental tyres, reports tyrepress.com.

In terms of how this will affect the development of rubber products in the country, the firm has revealed that the money will double capacity at the facility - allowing it to retread more than 1.2 million truck tyres.

Paul Williams, executive vice president of the corporation, claimed that the investment has been put in place due to "overwhelming demand"; with the firm having anticipated such expansion a year later.

He stressed that he is happy with the plant's progress, saying: "We first opened the ContiLifeCycle tread rubber manufacturing plant in May 2011 with the intention of supplying our ContiLifeCycle retread licensees and company-owned plants throughout our current footprint of the US, Mexico and Andean region."

The central Mexico facility is being lined up for further investment in 2014, when a curing and finishing line is to be installed.

However Continental's interests in the rubber industry are not restricted to motoring, as Plastics & Rubber Weekly revealed that the company is also working with Adidas on a trail-running shoe.

Dr Fabian Dettmer, Continental's expert for rubber processing and process optimisation, told the news provider that the project has been hugely beneficial in the way it has allowed his team to learn more about rubber compounds.

Author: Paul Smithson

9 January 2012