Yokohama Building Tire Plant In Mississippi
$300M plant the first built in the U.S.; a historic first for tire giant
Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) today signed an agreement to build a commercial truck tire plant in West Point, Mississippi, which is about 150 miles northeast of Jackson, the state capitol.
The facility, which is expected to produce one million tires starting in 2015, will have an initial capital investment of $300 million.
Construction on the 500-acre plant is expected to begin in September and completion two years later with a production work force of 500.
Yokohama says potential plant expansions could reach up to four times the original employment and investment levels.
“This is a historic day for Yokohama,” said Hikomitsu Noji, president and representative director of The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., YTC’s parent company in Japan.
“Since our entry into the U.S. market over 40 years ago, along with the subsequent acquisition of our plant in Salem, Virginia, in the 1980s, Yokohama has been on a continual growth. Now we will build a factory in the United States for the first time.”
