FULLERTON, CA  - Due to increasing demand for its consumer and light truck tires, Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) announced it is expanding operations at its Salem, Virginia manufacturing plant. The $13 million project will include new tire-making machinery, upgrading and modifying existing machines and an increase in high-performance and light truck tire manufacturing flexibility.  The expansion is slated for completion by August 2011.

"We have seen very strong demand and our increase is well above the industry average," said Dan King, Yokohama vice president, sales and marketing.  "We have gained more allocation from our offshore plants, but it is not enough. That's why the expansion at Salem will help fill the pipeline with our popular consumer tires such as the AVID ENVigor and S.drive, as well as light truck tires from our GEOLANDAR line." 

King added that the strong demand for Yokohama tires is across the board. In June, for instance, YTC's parent company - the Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. in Japan - announced a third-term expansion in its Thailand plant. The investment will cost 9.7 billion yen ($117 million) and will increase the plant's capacity to produce passenger car and light truck tires by 1.4 million units. This will expand the plant's overall output to four million tires annually. The Thailand plant has been producing passenger car and light truck tires since 2006, and tires for trucks and buses since April 2005. 

"The plant expansions are a strategic initiative aimed at ensuring that our product supply is in step with the market demand," said King. "The investments are a reinforcement of Yokohama's commitment to the consumers and our dealer network."

Celebrating its 40th anniversary in the United States, Yokohama Tire Corporation is the North American manufacturing and marketing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., a global manufacturing and sales company of premium tires since 1917. Servicing a network of more than 4,500 points of sale in the U.S., Yokohama Tire Corporation is a leader in technology and innovation. The company's complete product line includes the dB Super E-spec - the world's first tire to use orange oil to reduce petroleum - as well as tires for high-performance, light truck, passenger car, commercial truck and bus, and off-the-road mining and construction applications. For more information on Yokohama's extensive product line, visit www.yokohamatire.com.