Yokohama Tire Corp. will invest $13 million in its Salem, Va., plant to boost production of passenger and light truck tires.
The project will include the addition of new tire building machinery, modification of existing machines "and an increase in high performance and light truck tire manufacturing flexibility," according to Yokohama officials. It will be complete by August 2011.
"We have seen very strong demand and our increase is well above the industry average," says Dan King, Yokohama vice president of sales and marketing.
"We have gained more allocation from our offshore plants, but it is not enough. That's why expansion at Salem will help fill the pipeline with our popular consumer tires such as the AVID ENVigor and S.drive, as well as light truck tires from our Geolandar line."
King notes that Yokohama has experienced strong demand for its products at all levels. In June, parent company Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. announced a third-term expansion of its consumer tire plant in Thailand. The expansion will boost the factory's annual output to four million tires.
"The plant expansions are a strategic initiative aimed at ensuring that our product supply is in step with the market demand," he explains.
