Yokohama boosting Indian plant’s passenger car annual tyre capacity to 4.5 million tyres

Yokohama is investing US$82 million in expanding the annual passenger car tyre production capacity of its Yokohama India Pvt. Ltd. (YIN) from 2.8 million to 4.5 million tyres. The new capacity will be installed within premises of the Visakhapatnam plant in eastern India and is scheduled to start production in the fourth quarter of 2024. At that point, the factory will be capable of building passenger car tyres up to 22 inches.

YIN has been in operation since 2007 and has reportedly contributed to a “sharp increase in sales of Yokohama branded tyres in the Indian market”. And the company specifies that “The tyres sold in India are specifically designed for Indian driving conditions.”

India’s automobile industry has been expanding rapidly, with its total automobile sales volume in 2022 surpassing that of Japan, making India the third-largest automobile market in the world. Yokohama expects this growth to continue in the future. To support this growth, the company has steadily expanded YIN’s annual production capacity – from an initial 700,000 tyres in 2014 to 1.53 million in 2019 and 1.96 million in 2021. From January 2023, YIN has been operating its plant at an annual capacity of 2.8 million.