Yokohama Rubber expands OTR operations with Romanian acquisition

Hiratsuka, Japan – Yokohama Rubber Co. (YRC) has acquired fixed assets of Euro Tire’s closed manufacturing plant in Romania to increase production capacity for off-the-road (OTR) tires in Europe.

Through its subsidiary Yokohama TWS Romania, the company bought the land, buildings and machinery at the Drobeta-Turnu Severin site for $35 million (€30 million), the Japanese group announced 22 May.

The facility will be used to manufacture tires for mining and construction machinery.

The move builds on Yokohama’s $905-million acquisition of Goodyear’s global OTR business, announced in July 2024 and expected to close in early 2025.

That deal includes production sites in Kansas and Japan and is set to make Yokohama the world’s largest off-highway tire manufacturer.

As ERJ previously reported, Bucharest-based Euro Tire Manufacturing SRL filed for insolvency in May 2018, amid hopes of rescue options, including via merger or acquisition.

The cause of the bankruptcy “wasn’t materials costs or weak demand, it was just a bad contract,” a company official commented at the time.

Euro Tire produced OTR radial tires at its facility in Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania, and bias play tires in Dniepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

Prior to the bankruptcy situation, the company had also been a supplier to Continental Tire under an off-take agreement.

YRC has been highly active in developing its global OTR business over the past couple of years, not least via its €2.1-billion acquisition of Trelleborg Wheel Systems and more recent $905-milliion swoop for Goodyear’s OTR tire business.

Over recent months, the Japanese group has also announced plans to close a 90-employee farm tire production unit in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a 270-employee OTR tire plant in Prague and another in Hadera, Israel.

YRC acquired ownership of the 72-year-old Israeli OTR tire plant, which employs 474 people, through its €1-billion purchase of Alliance Tire Group in 2016.