Signing ceremony held for Yokohama’s US plant
On 29 April 2013, Yokohama Rubber signed an agreement with the US State of Mississippi, making plans to build a truck and bus tyre plant in West Point official. Hikomitsu Noji, president and representative director of Yokohama Rubber and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant represented the tyre maker and State at a signing ceremony held at the West Point Ritz, near the site of the future company plant. The facility will be located approximately 149 miles (240 kilometres) from state capital Jackson.
“This is a historic day for Yokohama,” said Noji. “Since our entry into the US market over 40 years ago, along with the subsequent acquisition of our plant in Salem, Virginia in the 1980s, Yokohama has been on a [course of] continual growth. Now we will build a factory in the United States for the first time (the tyre maker’s Salem, Virginia plant was acquired when Yokohama acquired Mohawk Rubber in 1989). It reaffirms our commitment to the North American market and to the continued mutual success of Yokohama and its business partner – our dealers. I’d like to thank Governor Phil Bryant and the State of Mississippi for their dedication in bringing this to fruition. I’d like to thank Mississippi as well for a very warm welcome.”
“I am honoured Yokohama has selected our state for its second US tyre manufacturing facility,” said Governor Bryant. “This new plant will have a tremendous impact on the Golden Triangle region (the area within the ‘triangle’ formed by the towns of West Point, Columbus and Starkville) and on our state as a whole, and I welcome this highly-respected company to Mississippi and look forward to our partnership in the years to come.”
The plant will be built on over 500-acres (202 hectares) of land, with construction expected to begin in September and completion in September or October 2015. The facility, which is expected to produce one million tyres starting in 2015, will have an initial capital investment of US$300 million and potential plant expansions could reach up to four times the original employment and investment levels.
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