Toyo Tires expanding capacity in Malaysia, USA

A total of around 35 billion yen (£234.2 million) will be invested in increasing production capacity at Toyo Tire & Rubber tyre plants in Malaysia and the USA.

The larger of the two investments will be made in the Toyo Tyre Malaysia plant in the state of Perak. Approximately 21 billion yen (£140.5 million) will be directed towards the construction of a new building that will house the production of an additional 4.8 million passenger vehicle tyres a year. This is the factory’s second expansion phase, and initially equipment for producing half the additional volume will be installed. Production is scheduled to start in October 2019.

The Taiping, Perak state facility serves as a global hub for Toyo Tire & Rubber, and supplies tyres to Asia, Europe, Japan and North America. The plant uses Toyo’s proprietary A.T.O.M. production technology, and currently has a production capacity of five million passenger car tyres a year.

The plant in Georgia is, says Toyo Tire & Rubber, the company’s “main profit generator”

Capacity at the Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing facility in Georgia, USA will increase by 2.4 million passenger vehicle tyres per annum through a 14 billion yen (£93.7 million) investment. In this fifth phase of expansion at the Georgia site, a new building will be erected to house the extra capacity. In the first stage of this expansion, equipment to produce an additional 1.2 million tyres a year will be installed. Production is scheduled to start in April 2019.

Toyo’s factory in Barlow County, Georgia primarily manufactures light truck tyres and other large-diameter tyres for pickup trucks and SUVs for sale in the North American market. As in Malaysia, A.T.O.M. technology is used in the entire facility. Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing has already increased production capacity at the site in four separate phases in order to meet sharply rising demand for light truck tyres in North America. In autumn 2016, the site became Toyo’s largest manufacturing facility in the world, with an annual production capacity of 11.5 million tyres (calculated for passenger car tyres).

The plant in Georgia is, says Toyo Tire & Rubber, the company’s “main profit generator.” The tyre maker is therefore “currently focused on improving product competitiveness and sales performance in the North American market” via its new medium-term management plan, Mid-Term ‘17. Goals under this plan include optimising product mix to accommodate market trends, advancing development and technical capabilities to deliver “surprising products”, improving brand equity and developing an efficient product delivery system.

Through the Mid-term ’17 management plan, Toyo Tires plans to increase its tyre sales by 31.6 per cent from 2016 results to 400 billion yen (£2.7 billion) and operating income by 23.3 per cent to 56 billion yen (£374.8 million) in 2020.