Continental plans to invest US$700 million in tire factories to increase production capacity

Reuters quoted mainland CEO Elmar Degenhart as saying that the mainland plans to invest more than 500 million euros (about 700 million U.S. dollars) in tire factories in the future to expand production capacity.

Degenhart said in an interview: “We should inject more funds into the tire factory in the past five years. Now we are doubling capacity in Brazil and we will expand production in China next year. We are also in talks with the Indian side on joint ventures and plans. Build a wholly-owned factory in Russia."

Degenhart is very optimistic about the prospects of the mainland in 2010. Speaking about the forecast of a 15% growth in mainland China's revenue in 2010, a few months ago, Degenhart said: "15% growth is only a conservative estimate."

The mainland still set the expected growth rate of revenue for 2010 to 15%, and expects the pre-tax yield to reach 8% to 8.5%. In addition, the mainland expects that the increase in raw material prices in 2010 will cause the cost to increase by nearly 100 million euros.