Bridgestone Corp. recently broke ground at a new passenger tire plant in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia.
“Bridgestone is building this new plant in order to meet the demand growth with local production and to contribute motorization in Russia with high-quality, safety-secured products,” said Kazuhisa Nishigai, COO and representative board member of Bridgestone Corp., at the groundbreaking.
The plant, which will produce passenger car radials for the Russian market, is expected to start production in the first half of 2016, the company said. Production capacity is estimated to reach approximately 12,000 units a day by the second half of 2018.
In addition to building its new plant, Bridgestone has previously taken steps to further develop its operations in Russia by expanding its Pole Position retail channel network, the tiremaker noted.