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.