Triangle Tire has announced plans to set up two tyre factories at an unspecified location in North Carolina, the US. These will be Triangle’s first non-Chinese manufacturing operations, wrote David Shaw, CEO, Tire Industry Research, in a note on Linkedin.

“In the first phase, Triangle plans to build a factory for five million units/year of high-performance PCR and SUV tyres, with an investment of $298mn. This project will begin construction in 2018 and come on stream within two to three years. In the second phase, Triangle will add a one million unit/year TBR factory for a further investment of $282mn. That project is scheduled to begin in 2020 and should be on-stream in 2022 or 2023,” Shaw wrote.

Both factories are intended to help serve markets in the NAFTA region: The United States, Canada and Mexico as well as neighbouring countries. The factories will be 100% owned by Triangle through local subsidiaries or as direct ownership, the note further said.

Triangle opened a tech centre in Akron in 2011. In October 2015, it opened US headquarters in Franklin, close to Nashville, Tennessee and shortly afterwards named long-time industry veteran Manny Cicero as CEO of Triangle Tire USA.