Yokohama establishes Singapore subsidiary

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., established a Singapore subsidiary called Yokohama Rubber Singapore Pte. Ltd. in April. The new subsidiary, capitalized at US$20 million (all equity capital from Yokohama Rubber), is scheduled to begin full operations from mid-May.

Up till now Yokohama Rubber has had a branch office in Singapore engaged in the procurement of natural rubber from Southeast Asian nations. According to the company, the decision to establish a local subsidiary is in line with the Yokohama group’s plan to raise the efficiency of its raw material procurement function on a global basis.

Initially, the new subsiary will be engaged in procuring natural rubber for Yokohama Rubber’s Japan plants in fiscal 2015, but the plan is to expand its natural rubber procurement business to also cover the needs of the Yokohama Rubber Group’s overseas plants from fiscal 2016. In the future, operations will be expanded to include the procurement of raw materials other than natural rubber. The new subsidiary also plans to strengthen raw material inventory controls as part of its efforts to establish a more stable and efficient global procurement structure. The existing Singapore office will continue operating until it completes the handover of its functions to the new subsidiary.

Shigeo Komatsu, Yokohama Rubber director and managing corporate officer (based in Japan), was recently appointed as head of the new office, which have a complement of eight employees.