Bridgestone relocates Asia-Pacific technical center

Bangkok — Bridgestone Corp. has relocated its Bridgestone Asia Pacific Technical Center Co. Ltd to a new laboratory building in Pathum Thani Province, Thailand, just north of Bangkok.

Bridgstone said this facility, operating under the auspices of Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, will allow the company to strengthen its functions and develop products better suited to the region’s customers’ needs and requirements.

The $42 million (€37.6 million) tech center started operations in 2013.

“By working close to the markets, APTC will enable Bridgestone to grasp changes in our customers’ needs and reflect them in the development of our products,” Naoto Yamagishi, the center’s managing director, said in a statement.

APTC has 90 employees from various nationalities; it relocated to the new and larger laboratory facility to allow for the installation of new machinery.

“In order to achieve Dan-Totsu in the Asia Pacific markets — which continue to grow and change rapidly — Bridgestone believes that APTC must strengthen its framework for research and development,” Hideki Komatsu, a Bridgestone vice president and senior officer, responsible for global innovation, said in a statement.

“This will allow Bridgestone to improve our products and business quality, and provide the best products for our diverse groups of customers,” he said at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony at the facility.

The Thai technical center was established to help improve product value for the region’s customers, by providing technical support and carrying out research and development in the region, through information obtained from local markets, Bridgestone said.

Singapore-based Bridgestone Asia Pacific oversees the operations of tire production and sales facilities in more than 25 over countries in the region, the tire maker said.

Bridgestone’s other technical centers are in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan; Akron; Rome, Italy; and Wuxi, China.