Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd plans to build tyre plants in Russia and Brazil by 2010 according to Japanese business daily Nikkei.
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The company is expected to announce the location of the plants and their capacities by March 2009.
The launch of a tyre plant in Russia will enable Yokohama Rubber to increase annual sales in Russia to about 2.5m tyres from the current 1m, the daily reported.
The report also said that demand for tyres in Russia is expected to grow as new auto plants come on stream and ramp up production.
Yokohama Rubber will be the first Japanese tyre maker to start local production in Russia. Bigger rival Bridgestone Corp already has tyre factories in Brazil.
Yokohama Rubber currently ships tyres to these countries from factories in Japan and the Philippines and wants local facilities that avoid import tariffs.
