Construction starts on U.S. tire giant's 200-mln-USD project in China's Kunshan

NANJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, a subsidiary of American tire giant Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, on Wednesday started the construction of the second phase of its factory in the city of Kunshan in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Once completed, the new project, valued at 200 million U.S. dollars, is expected to produce 2.6 million radial tires for passenger vehicles every year. This will bring the total annual output value of Cooper's Kunshan company to over 2 billion yuan (about 281.83 million U.S. dollars).

A high-standard green workshop will be built to produce tires entirely made of recyclable materials, which is expected to help Cooper slash the emission of greenhouse gases.

"The expansion of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Kunshan demonstrates the confidence of foreign capital in the Chinese market," said Zhou Wei, Party chief of Kunshan, adding that the city will continue to strengthen the automobile industry as an important growth pole to promote high-quality development.

A city known for its manufacturing industries in the Yangtze River Delta, Kunshan has forged an auto parts industrial chain of more than 150 billion yuan, and plans to boost the development of the new energy vehicle industry and intelligent connected vehicle industry.