TOKYO (Dec. 5)—Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. plans to build a steel radial truck and bus tire plant in Thailand at a cost of nearly $50 million over 16 months.
The new facility, to be operational by April 2005, will have an initial annual capacity of 315,000 units, but this will be doubled by 2007 in a second-phase project, Yokohama said, without disclosing the investment projection for the expansion.
A new company, tentatively named Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., will operate the factory to be built in southern Bangkok. Yokohama will own 95 percent of the new company, with the firm's local importer and distributor owning the remaining 5 percent.