Yokohama rings the changes with YX2023

Tokyo – Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd aims to achieve record sales revenue of ¥700 billion (€5.43 billion) and business profit of ¥70 billion in 2023, under a new medium-term management plan.

Alongside the Yokohama Transformation 2023 (YX2023) plan, the Japanese group has also announced targets for sales revenue of ¥770 billion and business profit of ¥80 billion in 2025. 

For Covid-hit 2020, the tires and rubber-products maker posted sales revenue of Yen570.6 billion, down 12.3% on the prior-year level, and business profit 26.6% lower year-on-year at Yen36.8 billion.

YX2023 is in response to automotive industry trends towards CASE (connected, autonomous, shared, and electric), Maas (mobility-as-a-service), and digital transformation, Yokohama explained 19 Feb. 

These developments, it said, will lead to a decline in Individual car-ownership will and a rise in the use of “infrastructure-type vehicles” to move people and goods. 

“As a result, what were once consumer tires will become commercial tires,” said Yokohama, which therefore aims to expand sales of high-value-added tires.

For 2023, the aim is to increase sales of flagship Advan tires, Geolandar tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, and winter tires respectively by 50%, 15%, and 20% from 2019 levels – raising the combined sales ratio of these three product-types from the current 40% to 50%.

Yokohama’s commercial tire business will, meanwhile, leverage new business opportunities presented by the automotive market changes and also strengthen its off-highway (OHT) and truck & bus (TBR) tire businesses.

To meet the expected growth in demand for lower cost tires, Yokohama will position its passenger car tire plant in India as the group’s “lowest-cost tire factory and create a new, low-cost production model.” 

The company is also considering applying “a low-cost production model” to expand output at its TBR tire plant in Thailand.

On the technology front, meanwhile, Yokohama is “to accelerate its development of tire sensors and create new value-added services by gradually expanding services and customers as new functions are added to the tire sensors.”

In the OHT arena, Yokohama’s plans include “aggressively investing to expand production capacity" towards delivering sales of ¥140 billion in 2025.

The group will also increase the capacity of its Mississippi plant in the US to meet robust market demand and expand sales revenue to Yen100 billion by 2025.

In its rubber products segment, Yokohama will concentrate resources in its two strongest business domains—hoses & couplings and industrial products. 

The group will also restructure its aerospace products business in line with current market trends in that industry.