Bridgestone's new plant to make specialised tyres
Bridgestone Corporation recently held their foundation stone-laying ceremony at the future site of the company's new plant in Thailand, which will produce off-the-road radial tyres for construction and mining vehicles (ORRs).
The ceremony was attended by representatives from the industrial estate where the site is located, and also from the company that will build the plant. The Bridgestone Group representatives present at the ceremony included Masaaki Tsuya, CEO and representative board member of Bridgestone Corporation, and Shigeru Kaneko, managing director of Bridgestone Specialty Tyre Manufacturing (Thailand), the company that will operate the new plant. In accordance with tradition, the ceremony included prayers for the success of the plant’s building, after which the attendees put the foundation stone in place.
Bridgestone’s ORRs are used on vehicles in mines, quarries, harbours and construction sites around the world. The group has produced these tyres exclusively in Japan and the United States.
By constructing this new plant in Thailand, Bridgestone will be able to establish an optimal ORR production system that will enable us to respond to growing tyre demand, and also to any future changes that might occur in the operating environment. The new plant is scheduled to begin production in the first half of 2015, and total production capacity is expected to reach approximately 85 tonnes by the first half of 2019.
