Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced that it held an opening ceremony on February 29 for a new tire plant that the company newly constructed in Binh Duong Province in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City to begin operation of Yokohama Tire Vietnam Inc.

Some 200 invited participants in the ceremony included Vietnamese government officials, Japanese consul general in Vietnam, local tire dealers, Japan-owned local car makers, and media representatives. From Yokohama Rubber, Yasuo Tominaga, chairman and representative director of the board, and other executives hosted the ceremony. "We began tire production 10 years ago in Vietnam. As the new plant starts operation, our operation in this country will have another momentum for continued growth", said Tominaga in his remarks.

Yokohama Tire Vietnam Inc. is a tire sales and manufacturing company established in June 2006. It began constructing a plant in October 2006 and manufacturing tires in February this year with planned reach to full operation at 1.3 million tires a year in this April. It will manufacture bias tires for light trucks, tires for motorcycles, bias tires for industrial vehicles and mini spare tires for sale in the Vietnamese market and export to Japan. Yokohama invested 1 billion yen for the construction of the new plant.

In 1997, Yokohama Rubber established Yokohama Tyre Vietnam Company as a joint-venture company with Southern Rubber Industry Company (Casumina) and Mitsubishi Corporation, and has manufactured bias tires for light trucks and tires for motorcycles. Yokohama Rubber plans to integrate this company with Yokohama Tire Vietnam Inc.