Yokohama Off Highway Tyres (OHT) is to invest in additional production capacity at its new Visakhapatnam Plant currently under construction in India. Additional spending of $171 million is intended to double the new plant’s planned daily production capacity.
In the first stage, scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023, production capacity will reach 55t (rubber weight). The second stage with a production capacity of 123t is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2024. Yokohama OHT, part of Japan’s Yokohama Rubber Group company, is engaged in the manufacturing and sale of OHT for agriculture, forestry, construction and industrial machinery.
Yokohama OHT currently has two tyre plants in India – the Dahej Plant in the state of Gujarat and the Tirunelveli Plant in Tamil Nadu – and a factory at Hadera, Israel. Manufacturing for Alliance, Galaxy and Primex, these plants produce three of the group’s core OHT brands.
As global demand for OHT is growing, Yokohama Rubber recently expanded capacity at the Dahej Plant and began the construction of the new Visakhapatnam Plant in the third quarter of 2020. In addition, the company has now decided to further expand the planned capacity of the new plant. The new plant is being built on a 390,000 square metre site that includes a recently acquired additional 70,000 square metres giving it room for further capacity expansion in the future.
Yokohama plans to expand its OHT business by capitalising on the strength of a multi-brand line-up that includes Yokohama, Alliance, Galaxy, Primex and Aichi brand OHTs to develop new markets and meet diverse customer needs. At the same time, the group is increasing its production capacity to further accelerate the strengthening of its competitiveness in the global OHT market.
