Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced that it held an opening ceremony on April 30, 2009, for the TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA, a new comprehensive tire proving ground the company constructed in Rayong Province, Thailand. Began in September 2007, the construction of the CENTER was completed in December 2008. The CENTER already started evaluation of some tires in January this year. Yokohama Rubber invests a total of 2.5 billion yen for the construction.

Sponsored by Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd., the opening ceremony attracted a total of approximately 130 invitees including Rayong Province administrators, constructors and motor journalists from Asian countries who were welcomed by Yokohama Rubber managing corporate officer Takashi Fukui and other Yokohama Rubber executives. "With its completion, the TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA has become the second comprehensive development base owned by Yokohama Rubber Group, in addition to an existing base in Japan, making it possible to drastically improve the Group's tire development capability in terms of both quantity and quality", said Fukui in his greeting speech. "We are committed to upgrading brand value of Yokohama tires around the world by utilizing these 2 bases as the core."

The TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA is a 1.69-million square meter site where the company built a High Speed Track with a total road length of 4.1 kilometers and a longest straight line of 1 kilometer where a high-speed running test of over 200 km/h is possible as well as a Multi Purpose Track of approximately 100,000 square meters (100 meters in width and 1,000 meters in length). The Multi Purpose Track has been equipped with a wet test course of approximately 9,000 square meters and a special test course that enables the evaluation of driving comfort and noises in a variety of road surface conditions of the world so that tire evaluation can be carried out in diversified conditions ranging from dry to wet. In addition, a General Road Track of 4.2 kilometers with the reproduced general road conditions in Asia was placed around the High Speed Track to implement more realistic durability tests using actual cars. These test courses are utilized to carry out running tests of passenger car, light truck, truck and bus tires manufactured at Yokohama Rubber Group plants in Japan, Asia and the United States.

At present, Yokohama Rubber evaluates its tires by using D-PARC, a comprehensive tire proving ground, and T-MARY, a proving ground specialized in winter tires, both of which are located in Japan, and contract proving grounds in Japan, Europe and the US. Completion of the TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA brings about many unprecedented advantages including the expanded tire test processing capabilities, shorter test period, easier choice of an evaluation site best suited to each test purpose, and consistent evaluation of tires under the same conditions throughout a year including wet performance evaluation.

Opening: April 2009
Location: Rayong Province, Thailand
(Approximately 100 kilometer southeast of Bangkok)
Operator: Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
(Manufacturer/distributor of tires for trucks, buses, light trucks and passenger cars)
Site area: Approximately 1.69 million square meters.
Facilities:
1, High Speed Track with total road length of 4.1 kilometers and
longest straight line of 1 kilometer
2, Multi Purpose Track of approximately 100,000 square meters
Dry test course
Wet test course
Special test course
3, General Road Track with total road length of 4.2 kilometers
4, Administration building
5, Garage
6, Tire storage