Sentury Tire project in Spain ‘hangs by a thread’

Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Sentury Tire's plan to establish a tire plant in Galicia is among a number of industrial projects being threatened by a lack of support for the development of energy infrastructure in the region.

That's according to Galicia minister of economy and industry María Jesús Lorenzana, who has called for amendments to a draft national law on 'industry and strategic autonomy' approved by Spain's central government.

In 2022, Sentury disclosed plans to build a €540 million tire plant in As Pontes, Galicia with capacity to produce 12-million car tires/year.

The project has since been delayed, largely due to issues around the development of new energy-infrastructure at the As Pontes site. (ERJ report)

However, the Madrid government's latest proposal does not address issues around a lack of energy-planning for regions such as Galicia, Lorenzana said in a 25 March statement to the local parliament.

The new law, she stated, "does not consider that the current electricity transport and distribution networks are insufficient" to support the implementation of new industrial projects.

Lorenzana went on to cite the planned Sentury Tire factory in As Pontes among a number of projects that "hang by a thread" due to the lack of electricity-delivery networks.

These projects, she said, are “waiting for the construction of two substations estimated to be operational in 2028… We do not know if all the projects in As Pontes will have the connection guaranteed."