During a ceremony held today and attended by local and regional officials, Yokohama Off Highway Tires (YOHT) inaugurated its newest factory in India and broke ground on the second stage of work at the site. Located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh state, the new plant is YOHT’s third in the country.
With the start of production at its new factory in Serbia drawing nearer, Toyo Tire Corporation is changing its organisational structure in Europe. Toyo Tire Europe GmbH, which has served as the sales vehicle and sales headquarters within the region, will be reorganised into a holding company that includes the Serbian plant under its umbrella. From 1 June 2022, the tyre maker will thus be represented in Europe by Toyo Tire Holdings of Europe GmbH.
On 14 February, Sailun Group Co., Ltd.’s Board of Directors unanimously approved plans to invest RMB 1.43 billion (£165.9 million) to establish a factory in Cambodia with the capacity to produce 1.65 million all-steel truck and bus radials a year. These tyres will primarily be exported to meet demand in European and North American markets.
Sentury Tire, the tyre manufacturer behind the global Landsail tyre brand, has outlined its plan to construct a 522.59 million euro car and light truck tyre plant in the Galicia region of northwest Spain. Qingdao Sentury Tire Co, Ltd’s board of directors approved the proposal to build capacity for 12 million high performance and light commercial tyres on a three-year schedule at a meeting in the last quarter of 2021, announcing this intention to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on 19 December. The company has implemented a 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Sentury Tire (Spain) Co, Ltd, via its Hong Kong trading company for the project, and wants to ramp up production in two phases; it expects the plant to reach 50 per cent capacity (six million tyres) after two years, with the second half added after three years. Sentury wants to achieve these milestones in 2024 and 2025 respectively, pending construction conditions in Spain and the availability of funding, which Sentury plans to self-raise.
STARCO Huanmei, a wheel manufacturing operation in China founded in 2007 as a joint venture with Kenda, is moving to an entirely new production facility that provides the scope to greatly increase output. The new plant is located in Zhejiang Province, some three hours away from Shanghai. Following a traditional Chinese opening ceremony two weeks ago, STARCO anticipates the factory achieving full operation by mid-October.
With an additional investment of US$171 million, Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. intends to more than double the production capacity for off-highway tyres at its Visakhapatnam plant in India. The new plant is scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of 2023 with a planned daily production capacity of 55 tonnes; this extra investment will lift daily capacity to 123 tonnes during a second project stage, which is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2024.
Toyo Tire Corporation shares that as of 1 July 2021, its Europe Project Development Department will cease being directly managed by the company’s Business Headquarters and will be transferred to the Production Headquarters, where it will be placed under the Headquarters Division.
Doubts have surrounded the future of Balkrishna Industries (BKT)’s plans to establish a factory in the USA for the past two and a half years, and now the company has officially ended the project. This decision was agreed upon during a board meeting on Monday.
Sri Lankan newspaper Daily FT reports that Chinese tyre maker Shandong Haohua Tire Co. Ltd. intends to build a factory in the country and produce both car and truck tyres there for export markets. The plant will be located on a 121 acre (49 hectare) site near the major port of Hambantota. Haohua Tire anticipates exporting its first tyres from the plant within three years.
Speciality tyre manufacturer Maxam Tire has opened a new advanced and automated solid tyre production facility. It said the new facility represents “a major commitment to the speciality solid tyre segment.” Maxam added that the plant is “strategically aligned to better serve today’s market demands through compound advancement and automated technology.” Sources within the Sailun Group told Tyres & Accessories that the factory is located in Vietnam.
After several months of test production, Nokian Tyres’ new factory in the USA has begun making tyres destined for retail sale. Now that the tyre maker has reached this milestone on schedule, it will steadily increase volume throughout the year and will continue growing it until reaching an annual capacity of four million tyres by 2023.
Commercial production at Ceat Ltd.’s new production facility near Chennai, India began yesterday, reports the tyre maker. Ceat says production capacity at the plant in Sriperumbudur Taluka will now be “ramped up progressively in a phased manner” up to a daily capacity of 28,500 car tyres and 2,500 motorcycle tyres.
A ceremony was held on 11 January to officially inaugurate car tyre production at the Hubei Linglong Tire Co., Ltd. facility in Jingmen, China. The event was held in the same location where TBR tyre production was commissioned in December and was attended by nearly 600 guests.
Linglong Tire has begun making car tyres at its newest factory in China. These first Linglong Crosswind 4×4 HP tyres from the Hubei Linglong Tire Co. Ltd. car tyre plant in Jingmen were produced on 30 December, five weeks after the production of truck and bus radial tyres commenced. Company employees and local dignitaries were on hand to witness the occasion.
Several weeks after entering operation, TBR production at the Hubei Linglong Tire Co., Ltd. factory in Jingmen, China was officially commissioned yesterday. Linglong Tire reports that nearly 600 guests, including government and industry representatives, attended a ceremony to mark the occasion.
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