NOKIA, Finland (March 9)—Nokian Tyres P.L.C. is shifting off-take production of heavy truck tires to Bridgestone Corp. from Groupe Michelin and has contracted India's Balkrishna Tyres Ltd. to make agricultural tires.
Starting this quarter, Bridgestone will start making Nokian-brand truck tires at its plant in Bilbao, Spain. Michelin had been making them at subsidiary factories in Olsztyn, Poland, and Budapest, Hungary, for the past four years. That output amounted to about $11 million in value annually, Nokian said.
Nokian said the change was "natural" since Bridgestone is a shareholder and cooperation between the two firms is increasing. Bridgestone owns a 19-percent share of Nokian.
Nokian's sales of heavy truck tire sales grew 11 percent last year to represent nearly 11 percent of its $748 million in new tire sales, the firm said.