Chinese tire company to open Tenn. headquarters

A Chinese tire company will be joining Japanese and South Korean tire companies when it opens its North American headquarters near Nashville, Tennessee.

Executives from Triangle Tire Group, Ltd, one of China's largest tire makers, are to participate in a ceremony on Monday to mark the opening of its 3,100 square-foot space in the Nashville suburb of Franklin. It is not clear how many jobs will be at the Tennessee office. Most are expected to be in administrative and executive roles. Company officials declined to comment to China Daily.

Nashville is the US headquarters for Bridgestone Americas, the Japanese-owned tire company. South Korea-based Hankook Tire is planning to hire about 1,000 employees for a plant in Clarksville, located 50 miles northwest of Nashville.

This will be Triangle's second US facility. In August 2011 it opened a technical liaison office in Akron, Ohio, close to the University of Akron, which is home to the Applied Polymer Research Center operated by the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.

Triangle Group is third-largest tire maker in China and 15th largest worldwide with 2014 sales of $2.96 billion, according to the trade publication Tire Business. Triangle is based in Weihai in Shandong province. It operates several plants in China that produce tires for passenger cars, sports cars, light and heavy trucks and heavy equipment used in construction and mining.

Triangle Tire North America is a 70/30 joint venture involving Triangle Tyre and Oriente Triangle Latin America Inc, the Miami-based distributor for the Triangle brand throughout Latin America, according to Tire Business.

Franklin, a southern suburb of Nashville, is located in Williamson County which has proven to be a sought-after location for corporate headquarters.

"We have over 50 corporate headquarters, which is three times the number the average county has in the US," Matt Largen, president and CEO of Williamson, Inc, an umbrella group for the chamber of commerce and local economic development office, said in an interview.

Largen credits the county's public schools, the abundance of corporate housing options and a rising tide of cultural diversity for making Williamson a successful business development.

"If you look at the latest census figures you will see that Asians are now our fastest growing ethnic group," he said.

Largen said Nashville and Tennessee are a popular area for manufacturers. "For Hankook the site in Clarksville was ideal because the site was available. We have a skilled work force and the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) is a good source for power. Nissan has had a large manufacturing facility in the area for years," he said.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com