Yokohama investing $1B in plants through 2020

Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. plans to invest $1 billion in expanding and upgrading its tire production worldwide through 2020, increasing annual production capacity 13 percent by 2017 and nearly 31 percent by 2020. The investments are part of Phase IV of Yokohama’s Grand Design 100 medium-term management plan, under which the company plans to increase sales 23 percent. Annual capacity will rise to 74 million units by 2017 and 89 million units by 2020, up from 68 million currently. The expansion project includes tire plant construction and expansion projects in the United States, Russia, Europe, and China. The US plant is currently under construction, a $300M truck tire plant West Point, Mississippi.

In January 2015, Yokohama announced that its Russian factory, LLC Yokohama R.P.Z., began production of OE passenger car tires in November 2014. In November, the subsidiary began producing “GEOLANDAR G91” tires for Nissan X-Trail SUVs made at Nissan Motor Corporation’s local facility Nissan Manufacturing Russia. In December, Yokohama began making “BluEarth E75” tires for Nissan Teana sedans made at the Nissan Manufacturing Russia plant. LLC Yokohama R.P.Z. was established in December 2008 and started production at the end of 2011, when it was Russia’s first passenger car tire plant operated by a Japanese maker. Yokohama Rubber has continuously expanded the Russia plant’s capacity, which now stands at 1.6 million tires a year.