Bridgestone announces Expansion of its North Carolina Plant.

United States: The tire maker is expected to invest about USD164 million to carry out the brownfield expansion of its manufacturing plants which produces passenger car tires and is expected to be completed in next 5 years.

The company claims this plant to be the most Environment friendly unit and believes that this planned expansion coupled with integration of latest technologies would significantly boost the plant performance at global level.

Michael Darr, the plant manager at Bridgestone passenger tire plant, says “Today is a momentous day for all of us at the Wilson plant and across Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, as we break ground on this important expansion that will allow us to grow our production and manufacturing capabilities to meet the changing needs of our customers.

It is expected that the Phase I investment of about USD100 million will add around 167,000 square feet of area to the existing unit which would include new tire assembly machines and all the associated equipment. The expansion would increase plant capacity to 3000 tires per day eventually increasing the total annual production capacity to 35,000 tires by 2018.

The event had the presence of the top Bridgestone leaders which included Christine Karbowiak, chief administrative officer, chief risk officer and executive vice president for Bridgestone Americas Inc.; Barry Owens, vice president of manufacturing supported by other top management. The tire manufacturing facility at Wilson was the first to produce run flat tires and is looking forward to produce the company's DriveGuard tires, the line of all-season replacement run-flat tires.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “United States Tyre Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020’’, replacement tyre segment accounted for more than 80% share in the United States tyre market in 2014. However, the share of replacement tyre segment is expected to decline over the forecast period, due to faster growth anticipated in the OEM tyre segment. Passenger car tyre segment accounted for the largest volume share of more than 80%, in the market in 2014, followed by light commercial vehicle, medium & heavy commercial vehicle, OTR and two-wheeler tyre segments. Major tyre players operating their tyre manufacturing facilities in the US include Bridgestone, Goodyear, and others.