Masaaki Tsuya, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Bridgestone Corp., spoke with the Japan Rubber Weekly about the ongoing restructuring of the company’s development and manufacturing center in Tokyo’s Kodaira district. After the Kurume plant, the Tokyo plant has the second longest history of any of Bridgestone’s plants, and along with its Yokohama chemical and industrial products base, also...
The logistics industry, the main source of demand for truck and bus radial tires (TBRs), now faces a range of challenges to reduce costs and environmental impact. Among others these include rising fuel prices and the need to procure new vehicles to comply with emissions restrictions. One solution recently promoted by tire manufacturers is to offer tire sets that include both new and...
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. set up a “Tire+Art” themed booth at the Tokyo Design Week 2015. The booth had on display a sculpture of a lion made using old Toyo tires created by Korean artist Ji Yong Ho, who specializes in tire art. Ji, who created this work on a request from Toyo Tires, said, “The reason I...
Bridgestone Corp. plans to establish in-house companies for mining and agricultural machinery on Jan. 1, 2016. Until now the functions of mining and agricultural machinery have been separated by region and product type. By integrating them from the perspective of customers, Bridgestone seeks to increase its customer orientation and enhance the expansion of its solutions business globally. The in-house companies...
A new truck and bus (TB) tire plant run by The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.’s (President: Hikomitsu Noji) U.S. tire production subsidiary Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi LLC (YTMM, President : Tadaharu Yamamoto), has been fully operational since October. This is the first time Yokohama Rubber has constructed a plant in the U.S. from square one. Total investment (Phase 1) in...
Bridgestone Corp. has completed a tire that utilizes natural rubber derived from guayule rubber. The completed tire is one in which over 99 percent of the para-rubber-tree-derived natural rubber, which is conventionally used for side-walls and treads, has been replaced with guayule-derived natural rubber. Although Bridgestone admits that “there are factors that require further study such as wear resistance, steering...
