Yokohama Holds Vietnam Groundbreaking Ceremony

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has announced that Yokohama Tyre Vietnam Inc., held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new industrial and mini-spare tyre plant at the planned construction site in the Vietnam/Singapore Industrial Park in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam, on 31 October 2006. A total of 90 people including those from Vietnam government offices, Japan-based manufacturers, banks and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. participated in the ceremony. In his remarks, Tooru Kobayashi, director and corporate officer of The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., said:

Since 1997, The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has been manufacturing bias tyres for motorcycles and light trucks through Yokohama Tyre Vietnam Company created jointly by Southern Rubber Industry Company (Casumina), Mitsubishi Corporation and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. However, since its current production capacity cannot fully meet recent strong demand, we have decided to construct a new plant. We also plan to manufacture industrial vehicle tyres and mini spare tyres, for which demand continues to be strong in Japan and international markets.

The new tyre plant will be constructed by Yokohama Tyre Vietnam Inc. that was established in May of this year by The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. as its wholly-owned subsidiary (paid-in capital: 300 million yen). Total investment in the new plant will amount to 1 billion yen for scheduled beginning of its operation in August 2007. It will be an integrated manufacturing plant encompassing from material mixing and tyre building to curing processes. Yokohama Tyre Vietnam Inc. plans to achieve an annual production capacity of 1,300,000 tyres in 2008, an increase of 2.5 times from the current production capacity. Although the area of the new plant is 30,000 square metres, the company has secured a total of 60,000 square metres in perspective of future expansion.