German tire maker Continental AG today announced that it has recently completed the first-phase construction of a tire plant in Hefei city, China's southeastern Anhui province. With a designed annual capacity of four million tires, Continental AG will finally be able to locally manufacture and sell the ContiSportContact tires in the country, Nikolai Setzer, head of Continental's Passenger & Light Truck Tire Division, said. Hefei plant, with a total investment of 185 million euros ($238 million), is said to be the first plant that is subject to Continental's Passenger & Light Truck Tire Division in China. Tires produced in the Hefei plant is expected to be put on the Chinese market in 2011 and the planned initial capacity of four million tires is still likely to be expanded in the future, the company revealed.Reportedly, Continental AG was supposed to complete construction of the Hefei plant and to put it into operation in 2009, but the financial crisis occurring in 2008 resulted in a rapid decline in the global auto sales and messed the tire market in the meanwhile. Therefore, the construction had been put on hold. However, in 2009, China surprisingly shrugged off the global crisis and made it the world's largest auto market by sales. Continental AG has thus resumed the construction.