On May 30, Yokohama Rubber Co. held an opening ceremony for its new passenger car tire plant in Russia. 
The facility, located in the Lipetsk Special Economic Zone and operated by Yokohama RPZ, was built with an investment of 4.8 billion roubles and is scheduled to reach full operation in the summer of 2013. Further additions will be made to the plant’s production capacity in stages, Yokohama reports.
Products made in the new plant include the C.drive2 and the studded Ice Guard iG35 winter tire, both of which are core Yokohama products in the Russian market. These tires will be manufactured in 13- to 18-inch wheel diameter sizes and mainly sold in Russia, with some exports going to Europe.
Around 200 people attended the opening ceremony, including Alexander Beglov, representative of the president of Russian Federation in the Central Federal District; Oleg Korolev, Lipetsk governor; Chikahito Harada, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from Japan to Russia. Attendees from Yokohama Rubber Co. included chairman and CEO Tadanobu Nagumo and Yokohama RPZ president Shinichi Suzuki.
In his speech, Nagumo said, "When I visited Russia in 2008, I realized that the Russian automobile society was beginning to mature and that there was a big future potential here. I then decided that it was of utmost importance to have a production plant in Russia. I had an opportunity of meeting some Russians who had come to Japan for training, and it was very reassuring to me how competent they were and how quick they were to learn skills. I am confident that in the future, we can contribute to the prosperity of Russia by supplying our Yokohama-branded high-quality products to the market."
Yokohama RPZ was established in December 2008 as a first step toward establishing tire production in Russia. The company is currently capitalized at 3.76 billion roubles, with an 80% investment share held by YRC and the remainder by Itochu Corporation. Groundbreaking on the plant was held in March 2010.Yokohama states that its tire sales in Russia are rising; in the 2011 financial year it sold some three million tires there, a 28% increase from the previous fiscal year. The country is now Yokohama’s fourth largest market after Japan, the United States and China. (Tyres & Accessories)
