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| | | | Yokohama Rubber Holds Opening Ceremony for Onomichi Second Plant | | Additional expansions to increase FY2012 production capacity to reach 2.2 times that in FY2007 | | The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced that it held an opening ceremony for the second plant of its Onomichi Plant on October 22. The Onomichi Plant is located in Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and specialized in the manufacture of off-the-road (OR) tires. Approximately 60 invitees including those from construction machinery makers, users in both Japan and overseas, tire dealers and the Onomichi city government attended the ceremony. In his greeting speech, Tooru Kobayashi, Director and Corporate Officer of Yokohama Rubber, announced that the company would further increase production capacity of Onomichi Plant by 2.2 times that in FY2007 to 2,500 tons a month in FY2012.
In order to increase OR tire sales, Yokohama Rubber is aggressively investing in plant and equipment. In the background to this move, there is a continued strong demand for OR tires as a result of a global rush of resource development and construction. The second plant has been designed to manufacture middle- to small-sized radial tires with internal diameters of 25, 33 and 35 inches for use in wheeled cranes and dump trucks of the 30- to 75-ton class that are strongly required around the world. Yokohama Rubber invested 3.5 billion yen in and began construction of the second plant in February 2006 with its targeted full operation scheduled to begin in October 2008.
Yokohama Rubber held the opening ceremony in order to commemorate beginning full-fledged production of 25-inch tires in this October, earlier than tires of other sizes. In October, 2008, when the second plant will begin full operation, the total production capacity of Onomichi Plant will reach 1,620 tons a month, an increase of 1.5 times that in February 2006. At the same time, the ratio accounted for by radial tires in the total production of Onomichi Plant will reach 40 percent.
Yokohama Rubber plans to proactively continue expanding the production capacity of Onomichi Plant into the future. For example, the company will begin investing approximately 5 billion yen for increasing the production capacity of super-large tires for use in dump trucks of the 100- to 250-ton class by the end of this year. In addition, the company also plans to expand the production capacity of middle- to large-sized tires for large industrial vehicles for use in port, vehicles for use in underground mines and dump trucks of 30- to 100-ton class, for which demand is remarkably increasing. With these production capacity expansion measures, Yokohama Rubber plans to increase the production capacity of Onomichi Plant up to 2,500 tons a month in FY2012.
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