Suzhou Yokohama Tire closes down bus, truck tire production lines

Suzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd. has closed down the truck and bus tire production lines.

Preparing for capacity transfer?

A dealer said closing down the production lines will have little impact on the supply of Yokohama products in the short term.

It is an ordinary adjustment of production lines. Of course, their sales of truck and bus tires in China are truly hard, said the dealer.

The company is still producing passenger car tires. But its truck and bus tire production lines were shut down officially in May 2017.

As early as Oct. 2015, Yokohama Rubber, the parent company of Suzhou Yokohama Tire, had started establishing new truck and bus tire plant in Mississippi, the U.S..

Accordingly, the company may intend to move truck and bus tire production lines out of China long ago.

Suffering “heavy shock”?

Commercial tire has always been a priority for the development of Suzhou Yokohama Tire.

Yokohama Rubber has emphasized the development of commercial tire business as a key strategy.

For this purpose, Yokohama Rubber purchased Alliance Tire and Aichi Tire Industry, and planned to build China into its largest overseas tire production base centering on Suzhou before 2020.

An industry insider analyzed that Suzhou Yokohama Tire might suffered heavy shock and had to close down the truck and bus tire production lines in Suzhou.

According to the insider, the company either had environmental protection-related issue, or failed to compete with local Chinese truck and bus tire producers.

For whatever reasons, shutting down the production lines will have significant impact on Suzhou Yokohama Tire.