BUSINESS BRIEF

Cooper cites progress at shut-down China facility

1/11/2014

FINDLAY — Officials with Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. said Friday that production has not resumed at its Chinese joint venture facility, but that progress is being made.

“Preliminary work to ramp up production of Cooper brands at CCT is taking place,” the company said in a statement. “While this is a step forward in resolving the issues there, Cooper is looking to the labor union and joint venture partner to assure that production will indeed resume in full and will continue uninterrupted.”

The work stoppage there became a major issue in the undoing of a merger agreement Cooper had to sell itself to Apollo Tyres Ltd. of India for $2.5 billion. Cooper terminated that agreement Dec. 30 after weeks of legal wrangling with Apollo.

Cooper’s management team was kept out of the Chinese plant and was denied access to its financial records, and the company has yet to file its third-quarter financials.