To meet the continually growing demand for off-road tyres (agricultural, forestry, construction etc), the Yokohama Rubber Group has announced plans to increase the production capacity of one of its new plants in India.

The firm's new Visakhapatnam plant, which is currently under construction in India, is set to be further expanded to increase production capacity.

An additional investment of US$171m will increase the new plant’s daily production capacity from the originally planned 55t (rubber weight) in the first stage of operations, scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023, to 123t in the second stage, scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2024.

The Yokohama Off-Highway Tires (YOHT) business includes brands such as Alliance, Galaxy and Primex, which Yokohama bought four years ago. YOHT currently has two tire plants in India—the Dahej Plant in Gujarat and the Tirunelveli Plant in Tamil Nadu.