Continental Tire Opens in Shanghai

The tire and chassis specialist opened its Shanghai Regional Distribution Center October 1st in cooperation with Penske/Honold. With the opening, Continental closed the temporary RDC it had opened in March.

"For Continental, this represents a logical next step in the development of Asian distribution," said Carsten Sziegoleit, head of warehousing and tire distribution worldwide at Continental. "Following the large-scale restructuring of logistics in Malaysia, China is the next challenge to be tackled," he added.

The launch of logistics operations in China is based on the introduction of the company's established logistics processes and systems. "In the interim, lean processes with a minimum of interfaces were successfully tested and the new distribution center thus promises to get off to a good start," the Continental representative continued.

Honold Reifenlogistik, a company specialized in tire operations, already serves Continental with over 100,000 square meters (nearly 1.1 million square feet) of warehousing. Penske will make use of some of its Honold's existing truck fleets to effect deliveries. The new RDC can accommodate up to 80,000 tires. Annual tire turnover will amount to about 400,000 tires.