TOKYO (April 27)—Bridgestone Corp. has selected Huizhou, China, as the site for its fourth tire plant in China, a $300 million radial truck and bus tire operation.
The facility, due on stream by January 2007, will have a daily output of 5,000 tires at full capacity, which should be reached by the first half of 2009, Bridgestone said. Employment will be about 1,000 at full capacity, the firm said.
The factory, to be located on a 119-acre plot of land, will operate as Bridgestone (Huizhou) Tire Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary capitalized at $105 million. Huizhou is in Guangdong Province in southern China.
This will be Bridgestone's second truck and bus tire plant in China; the first, in Shenyang, was acquired in 1999. Bridgestone has car tire operations in Wuxi and Tianjin, China.