Yokohama Tire Corp.’s plant in Salem, Va., has celebrated its 25th anniversary and produced its 80 millionth tire.
“These are two very significant achievements for Yokohama, particularly in the U.S.,” says Tetsuro (Tex) Murakami, president of the Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia LLC (YTMV).
“The plant helped establish our brand by providing a strategic manufacturing facility in the United States to serve both the OEM and replacement markets. Twenty five years later, the 80th million tire – an Avid Ascend with Yokohama’s signature technology, orange oil – rolled off the line. The accomplishments are a testament to the dedication and hard work of our employees.”
Yokohama says the Salem plant has been at the forefront of its environmental achievements in the U.S. This year, the plant became a zero landfill operation and received the 2015 Environmental Warrior Award from the Virginia Water Environment Association (VWEA). The award was bestowed to YTMV as part of VWEA’s 2015 Industrial Waste and Pretreatment Environmental Excellence Awards Program.
The Salem plant is active in parent company Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.’s global initiative, Forever Forest. The initiative aims to plant approximately 500,000 trees around Yokohama’s facilities worldwide by 2017. In 2009, the factory became the first Yokohama plant to hold a tree-planting ceremony outside of Asia. Since then, nearly 11,000 trees have been planted at the Salem facility.
Yokohama Tire Corp. and YTMV are part of Yokohama Corp. of North America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo, Japan-based Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.
For more information on Yokohama’s products, visit www.yokohamatire.com or www.yokohamatruck.com.
