Bridgestone's new RI plant

Bridgestone's new RI plant

TOKYO (Dow Jones): Bridgestone Corp. said on Monday it had
started mass production at its second tire plant in Indonesia,
which cost about Y12 billion to build.

The Karawang plant, near Jakarta, makes radial tires for cars
and light trucks; daily production capacity is expected to reach
about 20 metric tons of rubber, equivalent to roughly 4,000
tires, by the end of 1999. It has 243 employees.

Bridgestone's first Indonesian plant, at a nearby site named
Bekasi, consumed about 123 tons of rubber daily at the end of
last year, and has 1,952 employees.

Both plants are operated through a joint venture which is
owned 51 percent by Bridgestone, 6 percent by Japanese trading
company Mitsui & Co., and 43 percent by local interests.