On December 17, 2008, Cooper Tire and Rubber announced that it planned to close its tire plant in Albany, Georgia by the end of 2009. Operations at the plant will wind down over the next twelve months as production is moved to other plants or shut down entirely. The facility was acquired by Cooper in 1990 and employs approximately 1,400. The plant has a capacity of 22,700 units/day for passenger and light truck tires, or about 20% of Cooper’s total US capacity. It is not clear from the initial announcement what the net reduction in Cooper’s US capacity will be. Cooper intends to realign the mix of products at its remaining U.S facilities located in Findlay, Ohio, Texarkana, Ark., and Tupelo, Miss., to meet customer demand. Notch estimates that the Albany plant consumed 16-20 KT of carbon black per year, but, again, it’s not clear how much of this demand will be removed as opposed to shifted to other plants.
Here is the press release.