Yokohama Rubber Co. held an official opening ceremony on Nov. 1 for its new passenger car tire plant in India’s Haryana Bahadurgarh Industrial Estate.
The ceremony was attended by some 200 guests, dignitaries and Yokohama representatives. A second opening ceremony exclusively for 200 invited tire dealers from throughout India was held the following day.
“Anticipating considerable growth in demand for automobile tires in India, our company decided to construct a tire plant on this site back in 2012,” said
Yokohama Rubber president Hikomitsu Noji. “It is with great pleasure that I join you here today for the official opening of this plant nearly two years later. I would like to express our deepest appreciation to the government of Haryana, to the HSIIDC, and to all the parties who made this plant and this day possible. Going forward, all of us at Yokohama Rubber look forward to supplying the highest quality tires manufactured at this plant to drivers throughout India and are confident that our efforts here will contribute to the further development of Bahadurgarh, the state of Haryana, and the great nation of India.”
The new plant was constructed as the production site for Yokohama Rubber’s wholly-owned local subsidiary, Yokohama India Pvt. Ltd., which was established in April 2007. The plant, which began operations in July this year, was constructed with a total investment of ¥4.4 billion and will be able to operate at an annual production capacity of 700,000 tires in 2015. It will produce passenger car tires, such as the Yokohama Earth-1 and the S.drive, for sale as replacement tires in the Indian market.
The Bahadurgarh Industrial Estate is about 40 kilometers to the west of Delhi and has convenient access to the Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi, Yokohama said, adding the nearby Haryana State University of Science and Technology is expected to provide a steady supply of high-quality employees.
