Continental’s industrial group ContiTech earlier this month celebrated the grand opening of its high-tech hydraulic hose manufacturing plant in Aquascalientes, Mexico.
On a beautiful, sunny day, Continental’s ContiTech’s leadership team alongside local government leaders, cut the ribbon at its hydraulic hose plant in Aquascalientes, Mexico. In addition to the excitement and celebration, attendees had an opportunity to tour the facility’s testing lab, manufacturing space and warehouses. This plant will allow ContiTech to double its output in hydraulic hose, supplementing its Norfolk, Iowa plant, as it will manufacture only hydraulic hose.
Executives, local governmental leaders and Aquascalientes team members gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Continental ContiTech plant.
Key to the new facility is heavy investment into some of the most modern and advanced dynamic impulse testing in its research lab, with the unique capability to test six, 2-inch hoses simultaneously. The lab houses multiple specialized impulse and pulse testers built for different OEM-driven requirements including machines capable of high-temperature operation up to 160°C. Traditionally, hose manufacturers can run only one large-diameter hose test at a time, meaning qualification cycles can stretch for weeks.
This emphasis on advanced technology extends into the production floor, where Continental has built two parallel manufacturing lines to support both flex-mandrel and rigid-mandrel hose construction. Its 60-m mandrel bars are 50% longer than the industry-standard 40-m bars normally used in hose manufacturing. That extra length expands throughput and allows winding and curing to occur seamlessly across the entire 60-m span. While this line is still being tested and commissioned, the team highlighted that its advanced machinery, including precision wire-forming systems, is engineered to produce hoses with tighter wire consolidation, greater flexibility, and improved long-term durability. These newly engineered machines are expected to elevate product performance across the company’s hydraulic hose portfolio.
The ContiTech Aquascalientes plant features both spiral and braided hose manufacturing.
Engineers explained that the facility is intentionally structured as a campus, with about 20,000 square meters of adjacent land reserved for future testing and mechanical labs, and additional manufacturing capacity. On the production floor, Continental is already developing automation strategies for “one-piece flow” handling, where rail-based systems will move cured hose sections directly from the line to wrapping and finishing stations with minimal human handling.
Stepping outside, one sees the unique cooling process ContiTech has designed. Instead of traditional indoor water-cooling systems, which can consume significant energy and water, the plant uses outdoor air cooling, reducing environmental impact and operating cost. Planned future phases will introduce smooth-cover hose production via plastic extrusion, enabling the facility to manufacture both wrapped and smooth-cover hydraulic hoses by 2026–2027. Plans are underway to automate the cooling to storage process as well, with a system being developed to move the hoses without requiring human intervention.
An ideal location for manufacturing
This location came after Continental decided it wanted to focus on hydraulics in the Americas. Acquascalientes is home to many manufacturing facilities, with Nissan being the largest in the region. The investment in this centrally located region of Mexico means it has a highly skilled workforce. Continental evaluated the city because it had seen previous success at a manufacturing facility there in the automotive and tire space.
Philip Nelles, ContiTech CEO, said that Continental has had a long history with many locations in different parts of Mexico. “We also see trends in the country happening where, because of regional government activities, we have a very good entry. Learning about Aguascalientes and experiencing it, we found there was a very strong support, a very good framework there. We thought this is a really good choice,” he said.
Andreas Gerstenberger, CEO of ContiTech USA and Head of Business Area Industrial Solutions Americas added that the company is dedicated to its U.S. home, however. “The vast majority of our factories are in the United States. And I don’t think that will change,” he sad. “The latest announcement we had is about Mount Pleasant, Iowa, an investment like this one more or less in terms of size.”
Room for growth
“Everything was planned to expand,” Eduardo Barros, Head of Plant Management Aguascalientes explained during the tour, noting that the impulse lab is now the largest in the Americas for hydraulic hose testing. That capacity allows the region to take over testing previously done elsewhere, especially for OEM-specific requirements.
Nelles made it clear that Continental never intended this facility to be a traditional hose plant. Entering hydraulics as a major investment area meant adopting the most advanced processing and machine connectivity available.
“Moving into hydraulics with a major investment, it has to be state of the art, and more,” Nelles said. “We are strong in many fluid handling solutions globally, but we really want to now make a difference in hydraulics with a clear plan. We tried with a global team on the project, in combination with the regional team, to bring everything we could think of from a pure process technology point of view, connecting all the machine parts.”
A view of one of the advanced technology machines used in hose braiding at Continental ContiTech’s Aquascalientes plant.
Nelles added that the plant relies not just on automation but digitalization. ContiTech will combine all the data they collect — from the data on the hose manufacturing, raw material, environmental data points like temperature, humidity, etc. — and put into learning algorithms to ensure this is truly smart manufacturing.
The plant is manufacturing braided and spiral hose, and the 60-m mandrels will set ContiTech’s Aquascalientes’ plant apart from the competition, Gerstenberger said. He highlighted that this facility doesn’t just add capacity; it strategically reshapes Continental’s position in the Americas.
This plant will give the company independence of a large degree of imports from other regions, said Gerstenberger. “With this move to Aguascalientes, it is a focus on innovation and the latest technology. But it also is our focus of in the region, for the region.”
This focus is already visible on the floor. The team is designing one-piece flow automation where rail systems will move cured hose directly to downstream processes without manual handling. Large windows along the braided and spiral lines allow constant visibility, reinforcing the plant’s focus on precision and continuous monitoring.
Both leaders stressed that the plant was conceived with expansion in mind — physically, technologically, and in product scope. The massive property surrounding the site allows future lines, including smooth-cover extrusion, which is planned for 2026–27.
The ContiTech Aquascalientes plant has much room to grow, with several acres of land available for development.
It’s important to have phases in such a project. “We call this day a new chapter, and I think it’s a very good description of where we are in the process. So, planning, designing, groundbreaking, and then actually building. That’s a that’s a long, difficult, challenging part of the process, but it’s only one part,” Gerstenberger said. “Now we have the machines running, and we’re getting good testing and quality results. Let’s start to deliver to our distribution centers or customers directly. Let’s broaden the spectrum of the articles we’re producing and so on. And if that is going well, then you have maybe the next phase reached, and then you can put more or different products into the portfolio, and that’s why we have a phase 1-2-3, which is normal in manufacturing.”
Future plans for ContiTech
As the company expands, it will focus on its two strategic main pillars for industrial business of Total Conveyance and Reliable Flow, which surrounds its conveyor belt and hose technologies. This means they are looking into adding their own fittings lines and a complete solution evaluation for hose, such as training, installation, repairs, etc.
“Reliable flow is where we take a fluid transportation product, which is basically hose in all different shapes and forms, including hydraulics now, and also build up the stairway in terms of finding out how to grow in the business areas and the end markets,” said Nelles.
Phillp Nelles and Andreas Gerstenberger at the ContiTech Aquascalientes plant grand opening.
Nelles said that years ago, Continental started to expand its product reach, with fluid handling solutions and vibration control/damping components. But as the automotive industry has become increasingly turbulent and challenging, it became a key decision to focus on the company’s material competence. “We want to be an industrial player, but we believe, long term, we cannot do both directions in automotive and in industrial. We want to focus and bring speed to customers and markets.”
Continental has found a new home for its automotive business and plans to close a deal for a buyer for the automotive business in early 2026. Likewise, ContiTech is focusing on Total Conveyance and Reliable Flow for fluid handling solutions, conveyor belts, power transmission belts, and air springs.
“Wherever we see customers talking about a challenge, and our people on the ground in the field talk about the challenge, we have that material expertise to translate a challenge into a recipe, into a product, and then deliver into the market space,” Nelles said. “Because increasing uptime or pushing down operational costs is absolutely key with our components, and that’s what we’re striving to do. “
Nelles concluded saying that Continental will finish the transformation by selling ContiTech, and Continental will be entirely a tire player sometime in 2026.
Visit continental.com for information.
Filed Under: Components, Hose & Tubing, Industry News, News
