Toyo, Conti, Yokohama Settle GTY Dispute

Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas, Continental Tire the Americas and Yokohama Corporation of America have reached an agreement settling all claims relating to the lawsuit regarding Toyo’s forced exit from the joint venture GTY Tire Co. Last June, US publication Tire Review reported claims from Toyo that in December 2009 its GTY Tire partners Yokohama and Continental cut off Toyo’s requested 2010 allocation of 290,000 medium truck radials and had voted to dissolve the GTY partnership, citing Toyo’s “business and capital alliance” partnership with Bridgestone Corporation. Toyo, with a 16 per cent share in GTY Tire, was the ‘junior partner’ in the joint venture – Continental held a 51 per cent share and Yokohama a 33 per cent stake.

The agreement in the case, “Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. v. Continental Tire of North America, Inc., et al.,” dismisses the pending lawsuit and related arbitration and dissolves the injunction entered by the District Court in California in 2010, according to a statement from Toyo. Handed down in July 2010, the injunction enjoined Yokohama and Continental from terminating Toyo as a partner in GTY Tire, requiring the two companies to submit a plan for fulfilling Toyo’s backordered allocation of 290,000 truck tyres, which Toyo estimated to be 60 per cent of its need for the US and Canada markets.

“Under the terms of the settlement agreement, in consideration for the parties’ mutual release of all claims, Toyo agreed to withdraw from the GTY Tire Co., a joint venture formed by the three parties in 1988,” according to Toyo’s statement. The tyre maker also stated that as part of the agreement, “Continental and Yokohama, the continuing GTY joint venturers, agreed to produce a certain quantity of truck and bus radial (TBR) tyres for Toyo at GTY’s Mount Vernon, Illinois, facility, the output of which Toyo may purchase from GTY monthly for approximately the next year.”      Tire Review