TOYO Tire North America Manufacturing Inc will commence its fourth expansion of production capacity to meet growing tyre demand in the North American market.
Toyo’s North American production base for passenger vehicle and light truck tyres has been utilising a highly automated and proprietary tyre production system called Advanced Tire Operation Module (ATOM).
According to Toyo, this system produces highly consistent, highly uniform tyres, and is designed for multi-product, small-lot production with reduced lead times. The firm has achieved its Mid-term Business Plan goal of establishing an annual production capacity of 6.5 million tyres, with its successive production capacity expansions.
It says that this fourth expansion within the time parameters of the 2011 Mid-term Business Plan will further strengthen Toyo’s base of operations in the North America, which has been positioned as a strategically critical market. With an investment estimated at 20 billion yen, the facility will be enlarged by 1.5 times; equipment will be installed to represent half of all capacity; and initially achieve an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tyres.