Conti's energy-consumption now '22% below tire industry average'

Hanover, Germany – Continental has achieved significant reductions in energy-consumption across its global tire plants, the German group announced 25 March.

Following a series of individual-site and group-wide initiatives, the manufacturer said it consumes 22% less energy per tonne of tires produced than the industry average.*

The figure, it said, is the result of “an internal benchmarking against average energy consumption of the world’s leading tire manufacturers,” as reported by the Tire Industry Project.

Continental linked the achievement to its completion of 160 energy-saving projects, which reduced its annual energy-requirement by 150 gigawatt/hours in 2023.

Efficiencies, said the group, were delivered, for example, through the increased use of renewable energies and thermal-insulation programmes (see panel below), among other measures.

The group has carried out a “massive expansion of photovoltaic systems” across its tire production, said Dr Bernhard Trilken, head of manufacturing and logistics at Continental Tires.

“At the same time, we are driving a wide range of projects to make our operations even more energy-efficient,” according to the Continental manager.

Projects included increasing the efficiency of steam-generation for tire-curing processes, Continental stating that it, last year, cut CO2 emissions by 31 kilotonnes in this area.

Each of Continental’s tire plants, concluded Trilken, is working on individual and company-wide solutions to achieve climate-neutral production by 2040 at the latest.

*We will report further on the energy-consumption data from Continental and other major tire makers through ERJ On-line and in European Rubber Journal magazine.