Over 17m-euro turnover for Pirelli Tyres Romania

Tyre manufacturer Pirelli Tyres Romania, which opened its production facility in Slatina in October 2006, has reported a 60.36 million-RON (17 million-euro) turnover for the last two months of 2006, along with losses of 18.49 million-RON (5.2 million euros). The company’s losses increased by 4.5 times in 2006, against the 4.1 million RON reported in 2005. The company opened the high performance tyre plant for premium cars and SUVs following a 170 million-euro investment, with a maximum production capacity of 4.5 million tyres per year. The construction of the plant in Slatina is part of Pirelli’s strategy to expand onto the Romanian market, after it set up a joint company with the German firm Continental in 2004 producing metallic cord at the Slatina-based plant, where it owns 80% of the shares. The new facility, which will produce Winter, High-Performance, Ultra-High-Performance tyres and also a range of SUV tyres, was built close by the metallic cord plant. Production estimates for last year stood at around 300,000 units, with an estimated two million units this year.