Bridgestone Corp. said Wednesday that it will boost production at its three domestic plants to facilitate the recall of 6.5 million tires that its U.S. unit, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., announced earlier this month.
The top tire maker will produce 450,000 replacement tires domestically and airlift them to the United States immediately to help Bridgestone/Firestone to deal with the massive recall, it said.
The replacements will be produced at the company's Tosu plant in Saga Prefecture, the Hofu factory in Yamaguchi Prefecture and the Nasu plant in Tochigi Prefecture through the end of the year.
Bridgestone/Firestone, which has been under fire for acting slowly to replace tires allegedly linked to traffic accidents that resulted in 62 deaths, is already doubling its production.
Last week, the deadline for the completion of the recall was moved forward from next summer to next spring.
Bridgestone said it will airlift the replacement tires to the U.S. by regular cargo flights from Wednesday to Sunday and by chartered flights after that.
"Added to the major production increase already being implemented in the United States, this airlift reinforces our efforts to get replacement tires to our customers through company-owned Firestone Tire and Service Centers or authorized participating Bridgestone/Firestone retailers," Masatoshi Ono, chief executive officer of Bridgestone/Firestone, said in a statement in the U.S. on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Bridgestone/Firestone announced the recall of 6.5 million tires, namely the 15-inch Firestone radial ATX, radial ATX-11 and Wilderness AT brands. All three were made in the U.S. and are used primarily on Ford Motor Co.'s vehicles.
Of the 62 highway deaths being investigated in connection with the tires, most involved Ford's Explorer sport-utility vehicle.