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Press Release

Jul. 12, 2019

Strengthening of Production Capacity at U.S. Tire Production Facility

Hyogo, Japan – July 12, 2019 – Toyo Tire Corporation (Headquarters: Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture; President & CEO: Takashi Shimizu) announces that it has decided to begin further strengthening of production capacity at Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc. (President: Donald C. Bunn; hereinafter “TNA”), its U.S. tire production facility.

Overall view of U.S. tire facility (left) and core product “Open Country M/T” (right)

Taking into consideration “Mid-term ‘17”, the four-year medium-term business plan that started in 2017, Toyo is moving its business forward by touting several topics, such as strengthening product strength and further strengthening the systems geared toward increasing sales in the North American market, optimizing the product mix to reflect market trends, improving its development and technical capabilities to supply products that surprise, reinforcing the strength of its brand, and building an efficient supply system.


In the North American market, pickup truck and large SUV sales are currently firm, and Toyo has a competitive advantage with regard to the highly creative large-diameter tires mounted on these kinds of vehicles. A steady increase in the demand and supply capacity of this type of tire is expected to continue even in 2020 and beyond. With these market conditions, Toyo decided to install production equipment in the remaining half of the space in new 5th phase building at TNA that was expanded at the end of last year in order to further strengthen production capacity.
 
■ Production Capacity Expansion Schedule (Overview)

Investment Summary

Installation of production equipment*1 for the remaining half of the capacity of the new building*2 which we already constructed on the TNA property.

 *1: The building have an annual production capacity equivalent to 2.4 million passenger vehicle tires. (calculated for passenger car tires)

*2 Production capacity: 1.2 million tires per year

Total Investment

Approx. 7.0 billion yen

Schedule

Installation of production equipment to start in September 2020.

Production Start

Production to start in January 2021.

 TNA is expected to create 120 new jobs in conjunction with the expansion of its tire production capacity

 

■ US Tire Facility (TNA)

Location

Bartow County, Georgia, USA

Date Established

June 2004 (Construction completed in December 2005. Production started the same month.)

Business Activity

Manufacturing of radial tires for passenger vehicles and

Light trucks.

Representative

Donald C. Bunn

Paid-in Capital

150 million US Dollars

Equity Percentage

Wholly owned by Toyo Tire Corporation

(Consolidated subsidiaries)

Size of Site

150 Acres (approx. 607,000 m²)

TNA primarily manufactures and sells light-truck tires and other large-diameter tires for pickup trucks and SUVs for the North American market. A highly automated and proprietary production system, Advanced Tire Operation Module (A.T.O.M.), is used in the entire facility. TNA has been increasing its production capacity in multiple steps over four phases to meet the sharp increase in demand for light-truck tires in the North American market. In the fall of 2016, TNA became the TOYO TIRES Group’s largest tire manufacturing facility with an annual production capacity of 11.5 million tires (calculated for passenger car tires). TNA manufactured its 50 millionth tire in January 2019.

■ Reference (Past and Future Production Capacity 

Expansion Schedule

Phase III

Expansion

Phase IV

Expansion

Phase IV

Additional Capacity Expansion

Phase V Expansion

Phase V

Additional Capacity Expansion

Completion Date

August

2011

December

2015

October

2016

November

2019

(planned)

July

2021 (planned)

Annual Production Capacity

6.5 million tires

9 million tires

11.5 million tires

12.7 million

tires

13.9 million

tires

 

 

 

 

Toyo Tire Corporation
Corporate Communications Dept.
Hyogo Head office Telephone: +81-72-789-9100 Facsimile: +81-72-773-3272

Press Release is intended for media purposes, and is current of the date of publication.
Information is subject to change with or without notice.