The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. recently held an official opening ceremony for its passenger tire plant completed earlier this year in India’s Haryana Bahadurgarh Industrial Estate.
The opening ceremony was attended by about 200 guests, including Japan’s ambassador to India, Takeshi Yagi, representatives from automakers with production and sales networks in India, and tire dealers from around the country. Yokohama Rubber representatives included President and Representative Director Hikomitsu Noji and Corporate Officer Osamu Mikami, head of the Tire Overseas Sales & Marketing Division. A second opening ceremony exclusively for some 200 invited tire dealers from throughout India was held on the following day.
Addressing guests at the opening ceremony, Yokohama President Noji said, “Anticipating considerable growth in demand for automobile tires in India, our company decided to construct a tire plant on this site back in 2012. It is with great pleasure that I join you here today for the official opening of this plant nearly two years later.
“Going forward, all of us at Yokohama Rubber look forward to supplying the highest quality tires manufactured at this plant to drivers throughout India and are confident that our efforts here will contribute to the further development of Bahadurgarh, the state of Haryana, and the great nation of India.”
The new plant was constructed as the production site for Yokohama Rubber’s wholly-owned local subsidiary, Yokohama India Pvt. Ltd., which was established in April 2007. The plant, which began operations in July this year, was constructed with a total investment of ¥4.4 billion and will be able to operate at an annual production capacity of 700,000 tires in 2015. It will produce passenger car tires, such as the Yokohama Earth-1 and the S.drive, for sale as replacement tires in the Indian market.
The Bahadurgarh Industrial Estate that serves as home to the newly constructed plant is a location with many advantages, notes Yokohama. It is only about 40 kilometers to the west of Delhi, India’s largest consumption center, and has convenient access to the Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi, about an hour away by car. In addition, the nearby Haryana State University of Science and Technology is expected to provide a steady supply of high-quality employees.
