According to Mexico's economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo the Ohio-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is set to invest $550 million to build a new plant in Mexico.

As Guajardo said at an event in Mexico City, the Goodyear tire plant will be located in the central state of San Luis Potosi.

Goodyear has announced, as reported in Reuters, that the plant will begin production in mid-2017. The company plans on employing about 1,000 people once it is at full production. The production goal will be to make about 6 million tires per year for markets in the Americas.

Goodyear has stated that the new factory would be part of an effort to meet what they call a growing demand for premium passenger-car tires in North America as well as in Latin America. 

From 2014 on through 2019, the company fully expects demand for their tires to grow by 10 million tires a year.

Recently there have been a number a of auto investments coming Mexico to take advantage of the low wages, free trade agreements, and the nation’s nearness to the United States. This spring, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp, and Volkswagen AG have each expressed that they would be expanding their presence in Mexico.

As a company that is spread out all over the globe, Goodyear can boast 50 plants in 22 countries. According to its 2014 earnings report, the tire company sold 162 million tires worldwide last year, a number which included 61.1 million in North America and 17.4 million in Latin America.

The investment in the tire plant in Mexican is part of Goodyear's overall strategy for a capital spending of $1.1 billion in 2015 and $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in 2016.

Regarding the coming plant in Mexico, Richard J. Kramer, Goodyear chairman and chief executive officer, said, as reported in Ohio.com, “Our new factory will provide us with a world-class manufacturing asset and will be a strong complement to our existing plants in North America and Latin America."