JAPANESE firm Yokohama Rubber is investing 4.4 billion yen to construct a passenger car tyre plant in Delhi, India. To start up by 2014, the first phase will have a capacity of 700,000 tyres/year. The project has been on hold since 2008 but with sales of cars in India expected to soar to 7 million by 2020, the firm is reviving it.
In 2008, Yokohama acquired 25 acres in the Industrial Estate Bahadurgarh. But construction of the tyre plant was postponed due to the recession at that time. The firm says it will construct the new tyre plant as the production base of Yokohama India, which was established in 2007 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber.
Yokohama India has been selling passenger car tyres for the replacement tyre market through its own sales network. The company is making an effort to expand sales by creating an image of a high-grade brand tyre through placing an emphasis on high performance and high quality that characterise Yokohama-brand tyres.(PRA)
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