Tanzania’s General Tyre seeking investors: report

Dar es Salaam – The government of Tanzania is seeking to breathe a new line of life into the operations of General Tyre East Africa Ltd, which have been idle since 2009, local press reported 22 Aug.

According to Tanzanian Daily News, the Arusha-based factory has now been fully transferred to the state-owned national development corp. (NDC), which will seek to revive the company.

Speaking to Daily News,  an NDC official said that a German company had expressed interest in investing in the plant.

As previously reported by ERJ, in 2016 the government of Tanzania took over 100% shares of  the tire company, which was partly-owned by Continental AG.

Established in 1969 as a partnership between the government of Tanzania and General Tyre USA, the company is said to be the first tire-maker in east Africa.

In the 1990s, Continental purchased the shares of the US firm, which it then sold to the Tanzanian government.

At its peak, the plant produced about 1,000 tires a day, with installed capacity of producing 320,000 units per annum.