Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced that it would increase the export price of tire products from January 2010. The price increase applies to all tire products for passenger cars, light trucks, trucks and buses, and vehicles for construction and industry, and to all overseas markets except for Japan. The maximum markup is around 15 percent. But even larger markup may be applied to specific regions and products.

In the background to the price increase is the situation where it is difficult to absorb the increased cost of tire raw materials including natural rubber and crude oil only by corporate efforts based on internal improvement.