AKRON-Goodyear has arranged for the sale of U.S.-made Goodyear-brand tires through Toyota Motor Corp.'s extensive parts distribution network in Japan. Eight of Toyota's 33 Japanese parts distributors already have begun selling the U.S.-made tires, and Goodyear said it expects to complete agreements with the remainder by year-end.
The 33 distributorships, part-owned by Toyota, operate 280 sales outlets throughout Japan and account for approximately $5 billion in auto parts sales annually, Goodyear said.
Vredestein forms joint venture
Vredestein forms joint venture
VELP, Netherlands-Vredestein N.V. has formed a 40/60 joint venture with Malaysia's Fung Keong Rubber Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. to produce pneumatic industrial tires.
The Dutch tire maker also reported earnings of $2.91 million for 1994 on a 2.3-percent decline in sales to $248.7 million, the result of lost sales in its engineered products division.
The joint-venture plant, erected on Fung Keong's factory grounds in Kelang, was outfitted with equipment taken from Vredestein's plant in Maastricht, Netherlands, where it had phased out industrial tire production. The new plant will have a capacity of 1 million units per year-mostly Vredestein-brand tires that will be sold globally, Vredestein said.
At a glance
Bridgestone Corp. dedicated a $100 million tire plant in Thailand May 3, the second for its Thai Bridgestone Co. Ltd. subsidiary. The 583,000-sq.-ft. plant in Nong Khae, 50 miles north of Bangkok, went on line in January and is expected to produce 30 tons of tires per day by the end of 1996, about one-fourth the output of Thai Bridgestone's first plant, in Rangsit.
Alexandria Tire Co., a joint venture between Pirelli S.p.A. and Egypt's Trenco, has opened a $150 million tire plant in Alexandria, Egypt, that will produce up to 350,000 all-steel truck and bus tires annually.
Indonesia's PT Gadjah Tunggal reported a 40-percent jump in 1994 net profit to $41 million on sales of $260 million.