Yokohama Rubber recently announced plans to put up a new plant in Atchutapuram Industrial Park, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh in India. The plant will be situated in a Special Project Zone and will help expand the production capacity of the Alliance Tire Group (ATG).
ATG is a Yokohama Rubber Group company that manufactures and sells off-highway tires, the type of Yokohama tires used on agricultural and other equipment. The plant will have a daily production capacity of 55 tons (rubber weight).
It will also have a capital investment of about US $165m. Construction is expected to start in the third quarter of 2020 while the plant is scheduled to start operation in the first quarter of 2023.
ATG currently operates two tire plants in India – the Tirunelveli plant in Tamil Nadu and the Dahej Plant in Gujarat. Both produce the group’s three off-highway tire brands – the PRIMEX, GALAXY, and ALLIANCE. These are used on machinery involved in construction, forestry, industrial activities, and agriculture.
The decision to build another plant in India came as a result of the increasing global demand. Yokohama had launched a project in 2018 at the Dahej plant. Capacity was increased 1.6-fold upon completion. It was later realized that a further increase would be required.
The new plant will be located in a very advantageous position for finished products. The Atchutapuram Industrial Park is found in Andhra Pradesh in Eastern India. It is also close to the port of Visakhapatnam. The plant will have a total area of 320,000 square meters, providing plenty of room for expansion in the future.
Yokohama Rubber has a medium-term management plan of positioning commercial tires as its pillar of growth in its second century. The plan is called Grand Design 2020 (GD2020) and includes a detailed commercial tire strategy. In addition to expanding the sale of tires for construction, the company is looking to expand its off-highway tire business. This includes Group company Aichi Tire Industry for industrial machinery.
The new plant will expand Yokohama’s production network to eight plants in four countries. This includes three that are located in India, one in Vietnam, three in Japan, and one in Israel. The company’s daily production capacity for global off-highway tires will increase to 480 tons (rubber weight). The group looks to strengthen its global competitiveness in the sector going forward.