Toyo Tire Corp. plans to expand annual production at its Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc. (TNA) manufacturing facility in Bartow County, Ga., by more than 1 million tires.
The goal, says Toyo, is to increase its product strength, optimize the product mix to reflect market trends, improve its development and technical capabilities "to supply products that surprise," reinforce the strength of its brand; and build an efficient supply system.
"In the North American market, pickup truck and large SUV sales are currently firm, and Toyo has a competitive advantage with regard to the highly creative large-diameter tires mounted on these kinds of vehicles. A steady increase in the demand and supply capacity of this type of tire is expected to continue even in 2020 and beyond."
Toyo will install production equipment in the remaining half of the space as part of the plant's fifth phase. When completed in July 2021, the plant will have annual production capacity of 13.9 million tires -- more than twice the number of tires that could be produced following the Phase 3 expansion in August 2011.
Following the company's initial Phase V expansion, which was completed laste last year, Toyo's capacity was 12.7 million tires annually.
TNA primarily manufactures and sells light truck tires and other large-diameter tires for pickup trucks and SUVs for the North American market. A highly automated and proprietary production system, Advanced Tire Operation Module (A.T.O.M.), is used in the entire facility.
TNA has been increasing its production capacity in multiple steps over four phases to meet the sharp increase in demand for light truck tires in the North American market. In the fall of 2016, TNA became Toyo's largest tire manufacturing facility with an annual production capacity of 11.5 million tires (calculated for passenger car tires). TNA manufactured its 50 millionth tire in January 2019.
