Yokohama tyre plant for Rayong (update)

Yokohama Rubber Co aims to open a new plant in Thailand, planning to roll out tyres in April 2005. It plans to set up a company there in January to make radial tyres for trucks and buses. The company plans to spend 5.

5 billion yen to build a plant in Rayong that will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 tyres in its initial phase. In the second phase annual production is scheduled to double to 600,000. Its main product will be 22.

5-inch tyres, and they will be exported to markets around the world. Yokohama Rubber plans to acquire a site of up to 225,000 square metres in Rayong’s Amata City industrial park for the new plant. The plant will employ a “small-batch” production system, which is designed to maximises cost efficiency even on a relatively small production scale, Yokohama Rubber said.