As of 10 October, Hiroyuki Shioiri will switch roles at Yokohama Europe GmbH. On this date, he will cease acting as president of Yokohama Rubber’s European tyre sales and marketing operation and will become its chairman.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has announced a revision to its Procurement Policy for Sustainable Natural Rubber, which take effect this month. The revision to the procurement policy established in October 2018 incorporates the policy framework adopted by the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) at its second general assembly in September 2020.
Yokohama Europe GmbH, the Yokohama Rubber Group’s European regional headquarters, has donated €10,000 to the youth division of the Ahrweiler BC Football Club in Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate, the German state that suffered extensive flood damage last month.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. could phone up the team at Guinness World Records, were it so inclined. Each and every one of the company’s earnings figures for the six months to 30 June 2021 were the highest ever for the first half of a fiscal year.
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.
Cars running on Yokohama Advan tyres have finished first in two open tyre supply divisions of the 99th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which took place in Colorado, USA, on 27 June. The division champions were Raphael Astier, driving a 2015 Porsche BBI Turbo Cup in the Pikes Peak Open Division, and Randy Pobst, driving his 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid in the Exhibition Division.
At the end of March, Yokohama Rubber sold its headquarters building in central Tokyo. The company is now preparing to shift its headquarters functions to its Hiratsuka factory, which is located some 40 miles south of Tokyo, in Kanagawa Prefecture. It will gain 20.8 billion yen (£134.9 million) from the sale of the headquarters building – and will use the funds to fuel growth in key areas.
Another original equipment approval for the Yokohama Advan Sport V107. Yokohama Rubber is delivering this particular tyre to BMW M GmbH for factory-fitment on the BMW M3 saloon and BMW M4 coupe in the front wheel size 275/40ZR18 (103Y) and rear wheel size 285/35ZR19 (103Y). Supply began last November and complements Yokohama’s original equipment presence on the BMW M5.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has announced a global first, the development of a technology for efficiently producing butadiene from a biomass. It achieved this breakthrough via the ‘Bio-monomer Production Laboratory’, which the company established jointly with Riken and Zeon Corporation.
Urban planners anticipate a decline in individual car ownership and commensurate increase in use of infrastructure-type vehicles to move people and goods in years to come, and Yokohama Rubber is now planning for this in its newly-announced medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2023. The company intends this successor to the 2018-launched Grand Design 2020 (GD2020) three-year plan to “serve as the platform” for its growth over the next three years.
Three Japanese firms are jointly conducting pilot testing that involves joining data gained from an internet-capable tyre with a road surface sensing system to map data. The trio – tyre maker The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.; map and navigation technology specialist Zenrin Co., Ltd.; and technology company Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. – have now also begun studying ways to monetise this technology.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has expressed pride in its inclusion in two stock indices that focus on companies with strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices – the FTSE4Good Index Series and the FTSE Blossom Japan Index. This is the 16th consecutive year that Yokohama Rubber has been included in the global FTSE4Good Index Series, and the company considers its continued selection further confirmation that its ESG activities and disclosure practices “meet the highest global standards.” It is also the fourth year in a row that Yokohama Rubber has appeared on the FTSE Blossom Japan Index.
Yokohama Rubber reports it has developed a system that utilises artificial intelligence to predict the physical properties of rubber compounds, and from this breakthrough that it achieved last December has produced a proprietary system that is already being used to design rubber compounds for Yokohama tyres. The manufacturer expects that the system’s ability to conduct a large number of virtual experiments will accelerate compound development, reduce development costs and lead to the development of better-performing products. In addition, the system will simplify the compound-creation process for less-experienced engineers.
Yokohama Mold Co., Ltd. (YMC), the tyre mould production subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber, is expanding production capacity at its Yokohama Mold (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (YMTC) facility in order to strengthen the company’s supply chain in the ASEAN region. Construction of new facilities at the Thailand site began in January and are scheduled to be completed at the end of this year.
Yokohama Rubber’s off-highway tyre business, Yokohama Off-Highway Tires (YOHT), has unveiled a new corporate identity and corporate logo. The tyre maker says this new identity draws on the company’s century-old legacy while underlining YOHT’s own distinct space in the off-highway segment. As a result, the ATG trademark was phased out around the world as of 1 January 2021.
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