Yokohama breaks ground on Chinese truck and bus tyre plant

Tokyo - Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd has broken ground in the construction of a truck and bus steel radial tyre plant in Suzhou, China.

The Japanese tyre maker's Chinese affiliate, Suzhou Yokohama Tire Co. Ltd, plans to start manufacturing tyres at the $81 million (€63 million) plant in October 2007 and reach annual capacity of 350 000 units.

''The new plant will become the first TB [truck and bus] -use steel radial tyre plant in China for Yokohama,'' the company's president Tadanobu Nagumo said.

''At present, we rely on the import from Japan. However, once operation starts at the new plant, our capacity will significantly increase. We want to further increase production capacity in response to sales growth in the future.''

The Suzhou plant will be Yokohama's second Chinese plant after its Hangzhou passenger car radial tyre facility began operation in May, 2003.

The tyre maker also manufactures truck and bus steel radial tyres at factories in Japan, US and Thailand.