Thailand / Japan – Last month Japanese tyre manufacturer, Bridgestone Corporation, of Tokyo, Japan, closed its Rangsit Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) tyre manufacturing plant in the Panthum Thani Province in Thailand as part of “efforts to rebuild earning power” cited in its Mid-Term Business Plan (2024-2026) scheduled to be announced in March 2024. The factory employed 1,070 staff and produced 2,100 TBR tyres a day. Further reasons for closure included the impact on local communities, issues with the rubber supply chain and the overall profitability of the factory. Tyre production will be moved to the Chonburi plant in Thailand, which will compensate for the production shortfall.

In the USA, the company recently broke ground on an 850,000 square-foot expansion of its Warren County, Tennessee Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) tyre manufacturing plant. With production expected to be completed by the end of 2026, the USD 550 million investment is expected to create 380 jobs and support the increased production of CV tyres, all equipped with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that enable more efficient asset management, including retreading. The company is investing in AI technology to increase production efficiency.