Bridgestone to reopen all North American tire plants by end of May

Nashville, Tennessee – Bridgestone Americas Inc. will reopen its North American passenger tire plants and all factories in Latin America by the end of the month, the final phase of its restarting initiative in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bridgestone said 12 May that plants in Akron (racing tires, 60 employees); Wilson, North Carolina (passenger/light truck tires, 2,100 employees); Bahia, Brazil ( passenger/LT tires, 912 employees) and Santo Andre, Brazil, (passenger tires); and San Jose, Costa Rica (P/LT tires, 978 employees) reopened on 11 May. 

Plants in Aiken, South Carolina (off-road radial tires, 450 employees); Joliette, Quebec (passenger/light truck tires, 1,350 employees); and Curnavaca, Mexico (passenger/light truck tires, 1,123 employees) are scheduled to restart production on 18 May 18.

Factories in Leon, Mexico (Bandag retread products, 56 employees), and Muncie, Indiana (retread components, 31 employees), will reopen 30 May.

Bridgestone restarted production at its North American commercial tire plants as well as its North American Firestone Industrial Products and Firestone Building Products factories the week of 13 April. 

Bridgestone's Bandag retread materials plants in North America resumed operations the week of 29 March.

Truck/bus and agriculture tire production at the Santo Andre, Brazil, plant resumed on 20 April.

The reopening date of the tire plant Monterrey, Mexico, has not been firmed up.

Two Bandag retreading materials plants in Brazil, in Campinas and Mafra, opened in mid-April, while the tire factory in Llavallol, Argentina, which makes passenger, light truck, OTR and ag tires, reopened on 7 May.

The ramp-up of these facilities will bring all Bridgestone manufacturing locations in North America back into operation, the company said.