Cooper Tire Signs Supply Agreement with Chinese Manufacturer

FINDLAY, Ohio, Oct. 7, 2003 -- Cooper Tire & Rubber Company announced that an agreement has been signed with Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Company, Ltd., located in Hangzhou, China, to supply Cooper Tire with 250,000-350,000 radial medium truck tires (RMT's), annually. All tires will be produced according to Cooper's technical specifications under Cooper's proprietary brand names. Tire molds and other related equipment are in the process of being transferred from the Albany, Georgia facility where all of Cooper's existing RMT's are currently produced.

"This agreement is Cooper Tire's first visible step in the implementation of our strategy to augment our U.S. production with tires produced in Asia. It's a necessary strategy to make our overall product mix as competitive as possible," said Dick Stephens, President of Cooper's Tire Group. "In the RMT area this will allow us to expand our current offering without significant capital outlay. We can then realign our Albany resources to produce performance tires, specialty light truck and other segments, which are in high demand. Cooper engineers and technicians have actively participated in the technology and equipment transfer to assure that Cooper's production and quality standards are maintained."

Cooper's Albany, Georgia facility produces nearly 25,000 tires per day of which 1,200 are radial medium truck tires. Employment at the Albany plant is approximately 1,500.

"We have been very candid about our plans to seek additional production in Asia to supplement our U.S. capacity," continued Dick Stephens. "We have been traditionally known as a low cost producer in the U.S. and we continue to use 'lean initiatives' to improve our quality and lower our costs. How much production we secure in Asia depends on the success of our efforts in the U.S. to make tires at the quality our customers demand at a cost which keeps us competitive in the marketplace."