Bridgestone to produce passenger car tires in North Vietnam

Japanese tire maker Bridgestone Corporation has announced a plan to build a new tire plant in Vietnam’s northern port city of Haiphong to produce radial tires for passenger cars, at an investment cost of 35.5 billion yen (US$460 million). The new plant will be built at the Dinh Vu Industrial Zone. It is scheduled to start producing replacement tires in the first half of 2014, for export to the U.S., Europe and Japan. The plant will reach full production capacity of around 24,700 tires per day in 2016. It will employ about 1,900 people. The plant will be Bridgestone’s 50th plant in Bridgestone’s production system in 21 countries. The construction of the plant in Vietnam, the world’s fourth largest rubber exporter, comes after capacity increases at Bridgestone’s plants in Thailand and Indonesia failed to meet growing market demand. Bridgestone is the world’s largest tire and rubber company. (November 22, 2011)