Yokohama to Increase OTR Tire Production

Jan. 16, 2018

Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. plans to spend $45.5 million to expand production of off-the-road tires at an Alliance Tire Group plant in India. By the end of 2019 the company says production capacity at the site will increase more than 60%, to 91,700 tons.

Construction of the new facilities at ATC Tires Pvt. Ltd., an Indian subsidiary of Alliance Tire Group, will begin in February at the Dahej plant in the state of Gujarat. (Yokohama acquired Alliance in July 2016.)

The Dahej plant began operations in March 2015. It's current production capacity is 57,000 tons. Yokohama says because its tire sales are "on a strong upward trend," the company decided to expand production capacity "to avoid insufficient supply capacity in the medium term."

The Dahej plant produces three core Alliance tire brands — the Alliance, Galaxy and Primex brands, which are used in a wide range of applications, including agricultural, construction, industrial and forestry machinery.

The plant expansion follows what Yokohama has identified as a core strategy: to expand its commercial tire business. In October 2015, Yokohama started manufacturing truck and bus tires at a new U.S. plant in Mississippi. It acquired Alliance in 2016 and Aichi Tire Industry Co. Ltd., a maker of industrial machinery tires, in March 2017.