Toyo to Expand North American Tyre Production

Japan’s Toyo Tire & Rubber Co,. Ltd has announced plans to increase production capacity at its North American manufacturing subsidiary, Toyo Tire North America. The company will inject about 6,000 million yen (£25 million) into the US operations with a view to expanding North American sales of the company’s 16 to 24-inch UHP tyres and meet anticipated future OE demand from local car makers.

Georgia-based Toyo Tire North America was established three years ago and began the volume production of passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres in March 2006, employing a new, proprietary, automated “Advanced Tire Operation Module (A.T.O.M.)” system that facilitates the multi-item small-lot production of products within a much smaller space. The A.T.O.M. will be upgraded as part of the announced capacity expansion so as to help achieve higher product quality while boosting output to approximately 3.3 million units per year by 2009.