Tokyo - Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) will fully open its new US technical centre in January 2017 in a bid to develop products more rapidly and “respond to the needs of customers in North and South America,” the Japanese tire-maker announced 15 Dec.
Following the dissolution of global alliance with Goodyear in October 2015, SRI said it had taken a more active approach to improve its R&D, production and sales infrastructure in the Americas market.
As part of these efforts, the company has built a new technology centre with an area of 3,500 sq. metres on the grounds of its US factory, in Tonawanda, New York. This will be fully operational in January 2017.