Yokohama Posts Tire Sales Increase
Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.'s tire sales, which represent 90.8% of the company's consolidated revenue, grew by 14.3% on a year-over-year basis in 2025.
Yokohama generated around $7.8 billion in tire sales during the year, reporting "strong results in all tire segment businesses, including the off-highway tire (OHT) business and is driving a significant shift in the segment's revenue structure," according to Yokohama officials.
Looking back on 2025, Yokohama officials report that "the impact from higher U.S. tariffs subsided in the second half of the year and consumer spending picked up moderately amid improvements in the employment and income environments," while "business sentiment remained generally positive as declining energy costs and other factors contributed to lower costs."
By channel and segment
Yokohama's original equipment (OE) consumer tire sales increased year-over-year in North America, as well as other regions, "on an expanding number of new vehicles adopting Yokohama tires. OE sales in North America and Europe were driven by greater adoption of Yokohama tires for use on premium models, especially SUVs and CUVs, as well as other new cars."
The Tokyo, Japan-based company's replacement tire revenue also increased year-over-year, driven by "the positive effect generated by strategic OE returns," plus strengthening sales in North America for on-road SUVs and CUVs. "Sales were also boosted by our efforts to develop new customers while expanding business with existing customers in each region."
Yokohama's OHT business boosted its year-over-year revenue, "thanks in part to the constribution from the OTR business acquired from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in February 2025.
Yokohama officials report that the acquisition of Goodyear's OTR tire business enabled the company to "achieve a complete line-up of strategically important products."
On the ag tire side, the market for new machinery "remains difficult, but our efforts to strengthen customer relations enabled us to increase our market share. In the replacement tire market, our continued effort to expand sales in all regions by leveraging the strength of a multi-brand strategy focused on our Mitas, Alliance and Galaxy brand tires led to sales growth in the main markets of Europe and North America that exceeded growth in overall market demand."
2026 outlook
"In fiscal 2026, the last year of the (company's) YX2026 medium-term management plan, the Yokohama Rubber Group will continue its efforts to achieve business growth and strengthen its management foundation, including expanding sales of high value-added consumer tires, leveraging the synergies of the OHT business' multi-brand strategy, further strengthening the group's global production system and implementing drastic cost reductions."
Yokohama is planning to close its consumer tire plant in Salem, Va., in September 2026 after production there ends in July.
Due to changing customer requirements and market conditions, “the Salem facility is not well-equipped to manufacture Yokohama’s required product mix or achieve the company’s manufacturing objectives in the future," according to Yokohama Tire Corp. officials.
The company is not expecting any supply disruptions as the factory winds down.
The Salem plant has been in operation since the 1960s and has produced tires for Yokohama since the company’s acquisition of Mohawk Rubber Company in 1989. According to MTD's 2026 Facts Issue, the facility has the capacity to produce 25,700 passenger tires and 1,100 light truck tires per day.