Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (SRI) plans to increase passenger, light truck and truck and bus tire production at its factory in Brazil.
The company will add daily capacity for another 5,000 passenger and light truck tires, plus more than double its daily capacity for truck and bus tires.
The expansion on the consumer tire line will take production capacity from 18,000 tires to 23,000 tires per day; the company will increase daily production of truck and bus tires from 1,000 tires to 2,200.
SRI says it is investing approximately 23.5 billion yen on the factory in Brazil. The expansion of the consumer tire production line is scheduled to be complete by April 2024, while the commercial tire expansion will be ready by April 2025.
"Our Brazil factory has manufactured tires for passenger cars and light trucks since October 2013 and tires for trucks and buses since March 2019," the company said in a statement. "Although the Brazilian tire market contracted in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, market growth is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2021, and the tire market is projected to continue growing at a rate of 2~3% per year thereafter as well.
"By augmenting production capacity at our factory in Brazil, the Sumitomo Rubber Group aims to further strengthen our tire sales business in the Brazilian market while simultaneously taking a major step forward in advancing the global expansion of our overall business."
