Yokohama investing US$165 million in new India OTR tyre factory

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. is set to build a new plant at Atchutapuram Industrial Park, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India to expand ATG’s (Alliance Tire Group) tyre production capacity. The new plant will have a daily production capacity of 55 tons (rubber weight), with planned capital investment totalling US$165 million. Construction will start in the third quarter of 2020 and the new plant is scheduled to come on line in the first quarter of 2023.

As a result of the investment, Yokohama Group’s global off-highway tyre production network will total eight plants in four countries, including three in India, one in Israel, one in Vietnam, and three in Japan. Global off-highway tyre daily production capacity will increase to 480 tons (rubber weight).

ATG currently has two tyre plants in India, its Dahej Plant in the state of Gujarat and the Tirunelveli Plant in Tamil Nadu. The plants produce all three of ATG’s core off-highway tyre brands—the Alliance, Galaxy and Primex brands—which are used on agricultural, construction, industrial and forestry machinery. Yokohama expanded the capacity of its existing line at ATG’s Dahej plant in February 2018. Upon the project’s completion, capacity has been increased 1.6-fold. However, expectations for further increases in demand for ATG’s off-highway tyres led to the decision to build an entirely new plant.

The Atchutapuram Industrial Park is located near the port of Visakhapatnam. The site has a total area of about 320,000m2, offering room for future expansion.

Yokohama Rubber’s current medium-term management plan, the Grand Design 2020 (GD2020) includes a commercial tyre strategy that targets “commercial tyres as a pillar of growth in our second century and off-highway tires as a growth driver.” Therefore, the company is aiming to expand its off-highway tyre business, which includes ATG tires as well as Aichi Tire Industry’s (another group company) industrial tyres.