Contract agreement signed for expansion

of Nokian Tyres’ St. Petersburg plant

Nokian Tyres plc and Lemcon Oy, which is part of the Lemminkäinen Group, have signed a contract agreement on the expansion of Nokian Tyres’ plant in St. Petersburg. The contract was signed in Vsevolozhsk on 21 June.

The plant expansion will be initiated immediately and completed in March 2008. The ground construction work for the Nokian Tyres expansion project was initiated as a separate contract in March 2007. Similarly, heating, plumbing, electricity, air conditioning and automation tasks will be carried out as a separate contract to be agreed on later.

In total, the expansion will comprise approximately 33,000 square metres. The plant’s capacity can be increased from the current 4 million tyres per year up to approximately 10 million tyres per year. Two new production cells will be installed in the new production premises in 2008 and these will increase the annual production volume to 6 million tyres. In the future, machinery and equipment will be purchased in such a manner that the capacity of approximately 10 million tyres per year will be reached in 2011. The plant’s machinery will be new and as automated as possible.

The increased capacity will call for future investments in an expansion of the mixing plant and machine lines.

The foundation stone of Nokian Tyres’ plant in St. Petersburg was laid in June 2004, and the plant was inaugurated in September 2005. Lemcon was also in charge of the first phase construction. The plant currently employs c. 370 people.

For further information, contact:

Nokian Tyres plc
* President and CEO Kim Gran, tel. +358 10 401 7336
* Production Services, Director Esa Eronen, tel. +7 812 953 3941

Lemcon Oy
* Regional Director Mika Sandin, tel. +7 921 940 0923