Bridgestone to Invest an Additional Sum of USD180 Million at its Wilson Plant

Bridgestone is planning to invest an additional amount of USD180 million in its North Carolina facility in United States

United States: America’s prominent tire company, Bridgestone Americas Inc. announced to invest USD180 million in its facility based in Wilson, NC. After this recent move by the company, Bridgestone’s total investment in the plant would stand at nearly USD344 million, which would be utilized over the period of next 10 years.

The investment of USD180 million would include establishment of a new rubber mixer, which is expected to add 16 new jobs at the facility. Besides that, the funding would also be utilized for various manufacturing advancements as well as technological innovations by the company.

The groundbreaking for the facility, wherein, the new mixer is predicted to be installed would take place in the spring season of 2018. As per the officials at Bridgestone, the multi-level expansion of the facility would allow the company to meet the demand for higher rim diameter tires across the globe, at a comparatively low cost. Moreover, as per the plan, new tire assembly equipments, material handling system machines, curing presses and associated hardware would be added to the facility, which would increase the plant capacity by 3,000 tires a day.

By 2018, the tire production is anticipated to reach 35,000 tires from 32,000 passenger tires a day. Also, the company started manufacturing DriveGuard run-flat tires from 2016.

As per TechSci Research, the additional investment by Bridgestone in United States, would provide the company with a huge customer base across the entire region, wherein, the company would be able to meet the growing demand for Bridgestone tires at a global level. Also, the expansion of facility, in terms of innovation and technology, is likely to give a competitive advantage to the company over its competitors across the globe.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “United States Tire Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2021, United States has one of the largest automotive tire market, and also the second largest automobile market across the globe. A slow increase in the market was witnessed during 2012, which was neglected due to increment in the sales of automobiles during 2013-2015. Increasing automobile sales paired with increasing vehicle fleet are expected to drive the country’s tire industry through 2021. Moreover, growth in the country’s tire industry is backed by increasing sales volume of different vehicle segments, which is resulting in expansion of replacement automotive fleet in the US. The country’s automobile sales, comprising passenger cars and commercial vehicles, grew from around 13 million in 2011 to about 17.47 million units in 2015.