Bridgestone to exit truck & bus tire business in China

Tokyo – Bridgestone Corp. is to end all production and sales of commercial tires in China by the first half of 2024, the tire maker announced 27 Feb.

The group will “cease production of truck and bus tires (TBRs) at Shanghai-based Bridgestone (China) Investment Co. Ltd... and withdraw from the commercial tire business in the Chinese market."

The move, under Bridgestone's mid-term business plan (2024 -2026), is intended to ‘rebuild earning power’ and redirect strategic resources to the ‘premium passenger car tire market’.

Also the group said that on 26 Jan it had completed a previously announced plan to cease production of TBRs at its Bridgestone (Shenyang) Tire Co. Ltd plant in Shenyang, China. (ERJ report)

The facility, which had been operational since 1996, employed 657 people and produced approximately 4,300 TBR tires per day.

The decision to exit the Chinese TBR market follows previous efforts by Bridgestone  to improve the profitability of the business.

In September 2023, the Japanese group announced that it would discontinue the TBR OE business in China by the end of the year.  (ERJ report)

The decision, Bridgestone informed ERJ, followed a “significant decline in production and sales” of truck & bus OE tires in the country.

At the time, the group said it made “many internal efforts to optimise production capacity and reduce costs” but has not been able to improve the situation.

In late 2021, Bridgestone closed a TBR production facility in Huizhou, China: the 800-employee plant had a capacity to produce 4,400 units of tire/day.