Yokohama to Begin Russian Tyre Production in 2011

Plans for Yokohama Rubber to set up a manufacturing presence in Russia took a further step forward on August 21 with the announcement that it has signed an agreement with Japan’s Itochu Corporation to establish a company manufacturing and selling tyres in Russia. Called YOKOHAMA R.P.Z. L.L.C, the new company is capitalised at 3.76 billion roubles (approximately £71.86 million), in which investment ratio is 80 per cent for Yokohama Rubber and 20 per cent for Itochu.

The new company will build a plant with an annual production capacity of 1.4 million passenger-car tyres in the special economic zone (SEZ) in the state of Lipetsk, some 500 kilometres south of Moscow. As Yokohama Rubber’s application to enter the SEZ was already accepted in December 2008, the company plans to begin construction work on the plant in March 2010 with an eye to production beginning in September 2011. Construction of the plant in a 24-hectare site costs 4.8 billion roubles (£91.73 million).

Taking the current joint investment in the new company into consideration, Yokohama Rubber and Itochu have also agreed to increase the latter’s investment ratio in Yokohama Russia L.L.C., a Moscow based tyre sales company jointly established by the two companies in April 2005, from 14.9 per cent to 20 per cent.