Tokyo The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced its decision to manufacture passenger car and light truck tires in Thailand. In October this year, the company plans to construct a small plant that integrates everything from molding to vulcanizing at the site of Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. The new facility will have an annual capacity of 1.4 million tires when production starts in November 2006. The total investment will be 11.5 billion yen. The new plant will be a first-phase operation, allowing for expansion to second and third phases if demand permits.

The new plant will be part of overall efforts at Yokohama Rubber to boost production capacity in Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand in response to rising global tire demand. The company aims to particularly increase production capacity in tires for sport utility vehicles and light trucks.

Yokohama Rubber established Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) in January 2004 to manufacture and market truck/bus steel radial tires. It doubled the property size in December 2004 by acquiring adjacent land in line with plans to make the subsidiary a comprehensive tire production base. The new passenger car and light truck tire plant will be on the new land. Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) began making truck and bus tires in April, and has an annual capacity of 350,000 tires.

Location: Amata City Industrial Estate, Rayong Province, Thailand
Site area: 203,975m2 (the land purchased in December 2004)
Products: Sport utility vehicle and light truck tires
Production capacity: 1.4 million tires annually in first phase
Operational launch: November 2006
Number of employees: Around 430