Yokohama India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokohama Japan, has begun commercial production at the Bahadurgarh plant in Haryana and has completed the second phase of expansion. With this development, the Japanese tyre maker has more than doubled its manufacturing capacity to 1.6 million tyres per year in India.

The company had started operations in India in 2014 with an initial capacity of 700,000 tyres per year. Commenting on the expansion, Anil Gupta, vice-chairman, Yokohama India said, “In response to the increasing demand for Yokohama Tyres in India and keeping in mind the projected market growth, we decided to double our domestic manufacturing capacities. Incidentally it has happened at an opportune time as restrictions on import of tyres have been announced by the government. This decision is in line with the government’s clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat – from the drawing board to the dealer shops, the new Phase-2 facility is fully equipped to meet Indian market needs."

The tyre maker says with the technological expertise from the parent company in Japan, Yokohama will now mass manufacture its popular Geolandar A/T along with Geolandar SUV, BluEarth-RV02. “This development also creates more job opportunities locally. Currently the Bahadurgarh plant has over 500 employees and now with increased production we see the number going over 700,” added Gupta.

Globally Yokohama supplies tyres to OEMs including Audi, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Suzuki and Toyota in addition to replacement market.