Toyo breaks ground on Serbian tire plant

Hyogo, Japan – Toyo Tire Corp. and its manufacturing subsidiary Toyo Tire Serbia LLC Belgrade have broken ground on a new passenger car tire production plant in Indjija City, the Republic of Serbia, the company has announced.

Attended by 40 guests, including Serbian president Aleksandar Vu?i? and mayor Vladimir Gak of Indjija City, the ceremony took place on 15 Dec, Toyo said in an announcement.

Scheduled for start-up in April 2022, the plant is expected to ramp up to full capacity by the summer of 2023 to produce 5 million tires per year.

Many of the tires produced at the plant will be designed and developed at Toyo’s new R&D centre in Germany, said Toyo president and CEO Takashi Shimizu in an online address at the ceremony. 

“Our future goal is to produce tires created entirely in Europe," he added.

The €390-million plant will be Toyo’s eight manufacturing site and will mark the tire maker’s “first step” in driving its recently unveiled global growth strategy. 

Toyo opened its European R&D centre in November last year, as part the strategy, which will see the company raising production capacity by 8 million units per year by 2023.

The Japanese tire & rubber company announced last year it planned to transfer the production of European-destined tires from its manufacturing unit in Japan to the Serbian unit.

In addition, the facility will contribute to the supply of high-performance tires to North America, where Toyo aims to achieve a fifth ranking position.