Bridgestone opens Japanese retread plant

On 16 July, Bridgestone’s domestic tyre subsidiary, Bridgestone Tire Japan, opened a new facility that integrates its Osaka Bandag retreading factory and waste tyre processing plant into a single location. The new 7,100 square metre plant takes in used casings collected from the within Osaka and Kyoto, Hyogo Prefecture, Wakayama Prefectures and has the capacity to produce 3,000 truck and bus retreads per month, including Ecopia retreads. This figure is 30 per cent higher than the combined output of the two previous facilities. Tyres not suitable for retreading are shredded and sold as fuel.