Japanese company Yokohama, which at the end of March announced a temporary suspension of the operation of its plant in the Lipetsk region due to difficulties with the delivery of raw materials, intends to resume the production of car tires at an enterprise in the Lipetsk SEZ. As the CEO of Yokohama R.P.Z. Takaoka Tatsuya, the company has found a solution to a number of difficult issues. In particular, it was possible to establish the supply of rubber. The lot is expected at the end of May, and it is planned to start the production in early June, the press service of the government of the Lipetsk region reports.
The head of the enterprise explained that the exit from the downtime will be gradual, but at the same time, all employees will receive 100% of their salary, even if they have not been involved in the work yet. Yokohama R.P.Z. LLC, an automobile tire manufacturing company with 87% of the share capital invested by Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd, and 13% owned by ITOCHU Corporation, was founded in 2008 on the territory of the Lipetsk Special Economic Zone, located in the Gryazinsky district of the Lipetsk region. Construction of the Yokohama Tire Plant began in March of 2010.
The opening of the enterprise took place on May 30th, 2012; investments in the project were 26.7 billion rubles. The production capacity of the plant is 1.8 million tires per a year. In November 2014, the Yokohama R.P.Z. in Lipetsk began the production of tires for the original equipment of passenger cars.
