Yokohama Rubber to build new off-highway tyre plant in Visakhapatnam

Yokohama Rubber Co Ltd of Japan has announced that it will build a new plant at Special Projects Zone, Atchutapuram Industrial Park, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

This is to expand production capacity of ATG (Alliance Tire Group), a Yokohama Rubber Group company engaged in the manufacture and sale of off-highway tyres, such as those used in agricultural and other equipment.

The new plant will have a daily production capacity of 55 tonnes (rubber weight), with planned capital investment totalling $165 million. Construction will start in the third quarter of 2020, and the new plant is scheduled to come on line in the first quarter of 2023.

ATG currently has two tyre plants in India — the Dahej Plant in Gujarat and the Tirunelveli Plant in Tamil Nadu. The plants produce all three of ATG’s core off-highway tyre brands — the Alliance Galaxy and Primex brands, which are used in agricultural, construction, industrial and forestry machinery.

Advantageous location

With global demand expanding, Yokohama Rubber launched a project to expand the capacity of its existing line at ATG’s Dahej plant in February 2018. Upon the project’s completion, capacity has been increased 1.6-fold. Expectations of increasing demand for ATG’s off-highway tyres led to the decision to build an entirely new plant.

The Atchutapuram Industrial Park is located in Visakhapatnam, which makes it an advantageous location for exporting finished products. The new plant’s site has a total area of about 320,000 sq m, which provides plenty of room for future expansion.

Yokohama Rubber’s current medium-term management plan, the Grand Design 2020 (GD2020), includes a commercial tyre strategy that targets “Positioning commercial tyres as a pillar of growth in our second century and off-highway tyres as a growth driver.”

Accordingly, in addition to expanding sales of Yokohama tyres for construction, the company is endeavouring to expand its off-highway tyre business, which includes ATG tyres as well as Group company Aichi Tire Industry’s tyres for industrial machinery.

The new plant in India will expand the Yokohama Group’s global off-highway tyre production network to eight plants in four countries, including three in India, one in Israel, one in Vietnam, and three in Japan. Global off-highway tyre daily production capacity will increase to 480 tonnes (rubber weight). Going forward, the Group will continue to strengthen its global competitiveness in the off-highway tyre sector.