Dan King, sales and marketing chief at Yokohama Tyre, has said the company intends to increase supply in the US.
TireReview.com quoted King as saying that, “We weren’t, however, as good a supplier as we wanted to be for our customers. Our demand was very strong but we were not able to fully supply our dealer partners and allocate product as efficiently as we should”.
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Yokohama “will be increasing supply into the US market so that will help, though it won’t be as dramatic as we’d like”, King said. “I’d like to really open up and reach our true demand in the US but we will be limited in some areas. At least we will see more product flow into the US that’s coming from a combination of offshore and expansion of our Salem, Virginia, factory. We’ll see the full results of that this year.”
The company’s new product lineup for 2012 includes the grand touring Avid Ascend featuring the company’s orange oil technology, and the new Avid ENVigor ZPS launched on 1 February.
King said: “The orange oil technology is distinctive because it enables us to blend natural and synthetic rubber to form a new compound that offers better mileage, fuel efficiency and traction without giving up any other benefits.”
“We’ve had some issues in 2011 that will probably carry over into 2012, like increased shipping and fuel costs. But overall, I would say that the biggest industry challenge is managing supply within growing segments,” added King.
