Pirelli investing €400m in Romania, North America upgrades

Milan, Italy – Pirelli & C. SpA is investing €400 million in its plants in Romania and North America to increase its ‘high value’ tire production capacity at the locations.

The investment will include technological upgrades at sites, to be completed before the end of 2025, said Pirelli in its first half earnings call 27 July.

The move is part of the tire maker’s strategy to expand its market in the US and increase the ‘local for local percentage’ in Europe.

In February, Pirelli announced that it was targeting the US for its next phase of growth with an eye to increasing its share of the market for large rim-sized ‘high-value’ tires in the region.

“We have a lot of opportunities in the US market because we have a lower market-share compared to the other regions in the high-value [segments],” said the company at the time.

“We were able to gain [market] share in 2022 and we'll target clearly to [increase market-share] in 2023 and the coming years,” it added.

The Italian tire maker is planning to achieve growth in the US through new product launches as well as OE partnerships.

In Europe, the move is partially in response to the halting of exports from Russia to Europe, following the war on Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions on exports from the country.

“We were used to exporting the past around 3.5 million tires from Russia. Today the export is finished,” said Andrea Casaluci, general manager operations during Pirelli’s first-quarter earnings call.

“The tires that we were used to export mainly to Europe today, are delivered from local production in Romania,” explained the general manager.

The investment, will thereby, improve the “local for local percentage”, he added.