Bridgestone confirms plan to build car tyre plant in Brazil

Bahia, Brazil--Bridgestone Corp has confirmed that it is planning to build a car tyre plant in the Bahia State of Brazil, following a report here on ERJ earlier this week. A statement from Bridgestone reads, "Construction will begin in 2005, and plans call for the plant to begin production in the second half of 2006. The company will invest about $160 million for the plant construction project."

Bridgestone said, "The new plant will have an initial production capacity of about 8,000 tyres a day. It will utilize state of the art production technologies and is expected to create more than 500 new manufacturing jobs and 1,200 indirect jobs in the region." Bridgestone will carry out the projects through its Bridgestone Firestone do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda. (BFBR) subsidiary.

The company will also invest more than $100 million to modernise the 64-year-old Santo André passenger, truck/bus, agricultural and off-road tyre plant. The plant produces more than 30 000 tyres per day, but BFBR did not indicate what capacity would be after the modernisation.

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Press release from Bridgestone