AMATA CITY, Thailand—Bridgestone Corp. has opened an off-the-road tire production plant in Amata City, four years behind schedule.
The Japanese tire maker disclosed its plans to build the $569 million factory in 2012, with production scheduled for first half of 2015. The plant was then to ramp up to 85 metric tons per day by 2019.
However, in a statement issued Oct. 25, Bridgestone said the facility had a nameplate capacity of 35 tons per day, producing radial tires for construction and mining vehicles. The unit is operated by Bridgestone Specialty Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co. Ltd and spans an area of 9.3 million square feet.
The new factory will function as the first Bridgestone unit producing OTR tires in an Asian country other than Japan, the tire maker noted. With the new plant, Bridgestone expects to build a flexible production and supply system to be able to respond to medium- to long-term changes in demand.