SANTA ANA, Calif.—Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi L.L.C.'s new commercial tire plant in West Point, Miss., is nearing completion.
The approximately 1 million-sq.-ft. factory is on target to begin production in October, according to the tire maker, with construction, equipment installation and job recruitment achieved on schedule.
“We've come a long way since we broke ground in September 2013,” said Alan Easome, Yokohama Corp. of North America senior director, new plant development. “We outlined an aggressive plan to have a plant come on line in under 24 months, and now we are that much closer to serving our customers with expanded production capacity right here in the U.S.”
Yokohama Tire Corp. outlined several of the milestones achieved at the facility:
Opening of Yokohama Boulevard, a $20 million, four-mile road that will serve as a major thoroughfare in moving materials and products to and from the plant;
- Substantial completion of the main production building;
- Installation of equipment, with manufacturing processes, such as rubber mixing, initiated for testing purposes toward eventual production of up to 1 million tires annually; and
- Recruitment of 170 employees to date, with nearly 300 of the 500 jobs projected expected to be filled by year-end.
The tire maker said it has invested an initial $300 million in the facility in what is considered Phase One. The plant is being built on more than 500 acres. In addition to production, the footprint will include warehousing and operations facilities.
YTC and Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi are part of YCNA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo -based Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.