Tokyo – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (Yokohama) and Continental AG (Continental) announced today that, they have agreed to terminate their joint venture company, Yokohama Continental Tire Co., Ltd. (YCC), effective end of March 2016.

YCC has been formed in 2002, in order to meet Japanese and Korean carmakers’ requirement of global procurement and it has brought great success for the last 14 years. In the meanwhile, Yokohama and Continental have been expanding their global production networks and the primary purpose of YCC has been achieved. Yokohama and Continental now have agreed to expand their own business individually throughout the world.

Founded in Japan in 1917, Yokohama is a comprehensive global tire and rubber manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo. In addition to being a comprehensive maker of tires, including tires for passenger cars, trucks and buses, and construction machinery, Yokohama produces and markets a wide range of rubber products, such as automotive hoses and conveyor belts as well as marine hoses. The Company operates 14 tire plants in eight countries around the world and employs about 22,000 people globally. Its consolidated sales in fiscal year 2015 (ending December 31, 2015) totaled 629.9 billion yen.

Yokohama is currently in the midst of Phase IV (FY2015–2017) of its medium-term management plan, Grand Design 100 (GD100). One of the key goals of Phase IV is to strengthen the Company’s presence in the global original equipment (OE) market in order to set the stage for achieving a fourfold increase in the number of YOKOHAMA tires installed on new cars in overseas markets from 2014 to 2020. Toward that end, the Company is expanding shipments of tires for OE use from its plants in China, Thailand, the Philippines and Russia, while also supplying Japanese automobile makers with OE tires for export models. Following the dissolution of YCC, Yokohama will leverage its proprietary global production network to further expand its overseas OE business.

Continental develops intelligent technologies for transporting people and their goods. As a reliable partner, the international automotive supplier, tire manufacturer, and industrial partner provides sustainable, safe, comfortable, individual, and affordable solutions. In 2015, the corporation generated preliminary sales of approximately €39.2 billion with its five divisions, Chassis & Safety, Interior, Powertrain, Tires, and ContiTech. Continental employs more than 208,000 people in 53 countries.