Conti, Yokohama to end Asian JV after 14 years

Tokyo – Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd and Continental AG have agreed to terminate their joint venture company, Yokohama Continental Tire Co. Ltd (YCC) by the end of the month, the companies announced 8 March.

The companies set up YCC 14 years ago to meet the global procurement requirements of Japanese and Korean carmakers, according to the statement

“In the meanwhile, Yokohama and Continental have been expanding their global production networks and the primary purpose of YCC has been achieved,” explained the release. The companies, it said, will now expand their own business individually, worldwide.

Following the dissolution of YCC, Yokohama said that it would “leverage its proprietary global production network to further expand its overseas OE business”.

The company said that it will be expanding shipments of tires for OE use from its plants in China, Thailand, the Philippines and Russia, while also supplying Japanese car makers with OE tires for export models.

Yokohama and Conti established the 50:50 YCC joint venture with a total paid-up capital of 100 million Yen (around €850,000) in March 2002 in Tokyo.

The JV was tasked to promote tire businesses by marketing OE tires for passenger cars, light trucks and trucks/busses to Japanese automakers and their overseas transplants as well as to Korean automakers.

Also, under the JV agreement, Yokohama would become the exclusive importer/distributor of Continental tires in Japan and start distributing Continental-brand and other main tire brands of Continental for passenger cars as well as tires for industrial vehicles through its network for replacement tires.

At the time, the two companies also signed a separate agreement to exchange technology in order to promote their joint activities.