The Yokohama Rubber Company has announced the start of production at its new Visakhapatnam off-highway tyre plant in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
The site was originally scheduled to begin production in the first quarter of 2023, but the earlier than planned start-up will enable Yokohama’s off-highway tyres division (YOHT) to respond more quickly to the expanding global demand for its products.
YOHT has two other tyre plants in India – the Dahej Plant in the state of Gujarat and the Tirunelveli Plant in Tamil Nadu. Together they produce the company’s three core brands – Alliance, Galaxy and Primex – that are used in agricultural, construction, industrial and forestry machinery.
YOHT said its sales have been expanding faster than the overall off-highway tyre market, and to meet the demand it began the construction of the Visakhapatnam Plant in the third quarter of 2020 to supplement a 1.6 times expansion of production capacity at the Dahej Plant.
In its initial production stage, the Visakhapatnam Plant will have a daily capacity of 69t (rubber weight). This will increase to 132t following a further expansion project due to start in 2024, and more future expansion phases are already under consideration.
