Toyo Tire Corp. will boost annual output capacity in Malaysia by 48 percent, to 7.4 million units, as part of a global strategy to promote overseas production, the firm said.
Toyo Tire said local subsidiary Toyo Tyre Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. recently built a plant in Taiping, at the Kamunting Raya industrial park in the western state of Perak.
The plant will start operations in October with an initial annual production capacity of 2.4 million tires. Toyo Tire's total output capacity in Malaysia is currently 5 million units.
The Japanese firm will invest as much as ¥21 billion ($200 million) and hire about 450 employees under its expansion project in Malaysia, a Toyo Tire spokesman told NNA last week.
The new plant will initially produce tires for sport utility vehicles and cars in the United States and Europe, before shipping them locally and to other Southeast Asian countries, the spokesman said.
As part of its campaign to promote foreign production, Toyo Tire will open an overseas plant in Serbia in 2022 to export tires to Russia and Europe. The firm also operates plants in the United States and China.