Continental Tire the Americas has begun shipments of its flat precure treads from a new central manufacturing plant in Morelia, Mexico, with plans to eventually distribute the products throughout the Americas.


For its ContiLifeCycle business, Continental's Commercial Vehicle Tires division officially opened its Morelia tread manufacturing facility as of April 27. The plant will fulfill the increasing demand for retreaded truck tires as Continental expands its lifecycle solution for trucking fleets.

The 3,100-square-meter plant is currently producing 7,500 rolls of flat precure treads monthly, which is enough to retread 22,500 truck tires. According to John Barnes, ContiLifeCycle manager, capacity is already increasing to approximately half a million retreads annually, and the plant will be expanded to meet production levels of more than one million flat retreads annually by 2015. 


ContiLifeCycle products are manufactured to have the same tread designs and engineering features as new Continental truck tires for a match in performance.


The flat treads produced from the Morelia plant currently include ContiLifeCycle HDL Eco Plus (Heavy Drive Long Haul), HTL Eco Plus (Heavy Trailer Long Haul), HDR1 (Heavy Drive Regional) and D450 (a General brand drive tire). The plant also recently began producing the ContiLifeCycle retread for the HSR (Heavy Steer Regional) and HSC (Heavy Steer Construction) tires for Mexico in 18/32 tread depth, and will soon expand to a 23/32 product.