S.C. Leads Nation in Tire Business
Monday, June 23, 2014 at 1:46PM South Carolina is on one heck of a roll when it comes to tires.
The Palmetto State in the fourth quarter of 2013 elbowed aside Oklahoma as the nation’s leading tire producer, churning out 89,000 a day compared to the Sooner State’s 88,000 a day, according to estimates by Tire Business magazine.
It is also expanding its lead as the export king – last year shipping 30 percent of the nation’s overseas market, three times as many tires as its nearest competitor, Ohio.
“South Carolina is No. 1,” Dave Zielasko, the magazine’s publisher and editor-in-chief, said. “And its not surprising. South Carolina has really been aggressive in attracting these factories.”
Last Monday’s announcement of a new Giti Tires plant in Chester brings to $3.5 billion the amount of investment tire companies have pumped into the state since 2011. Those new plants and expansions of existing ones are expected to create 5,150 jobs by the end of this decade. That includes the $560 million investment announced Monday by the Singapore tire manufacturer that is expected to produce 1,700 jobs.
The state’s climb to the top of the tire heap is part of an overall rebirth of manufacturing in South Carolina – highlighted by Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner assembly plant in North Charleston – that has led the state’s recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Unemployment has dropped from a high of nearly 11.9 percent in 2009 to 5.3 percent in April.
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