OSAKA, Japan (Jan. 28, 2010)—Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. has picked Zhangjiagang City as the site for the Chinese tire factory it disclosed last August it intended to build.
The new plant is expected to come on stream by year-end 2011 with about 500 employees and initial capacity for 2 million passenger and light truck tires, Toyo said. The company last August put its investment for the plant at $105 million.
Toyo previously produced tires in China in joint ventures with Taiwan's Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. Ltd./Maxxis International, but it dissolved the ventures in August and shifted its relationship with Cheng Shin to a consignment manufacturing agreement.
That decision allows it to continue to supply customers until its own factory comes on stream, Toyo said at that time. Toyo cited its need “to respond to increasing tire demands in accordance with the rapid progress of motorization in the Chinese market” for its decision.
The new company will be called Toyo Tires Zhangjiagang Co. Ltd.
Zhangjiagang City is a metropolis of about 1.2 million inhabitants located on the Yantgze River in Jiangsu Province.
Toyo and Cheng Shin first teamed up in 1995 to build a plant in Kunshan, which came on stream in 1997. The second joint venture, in Xiamen, was established in 2002.