Newspaper Article

Bridgestone Boosts Tire Output to Support Recall

By Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters Todd Zaun in Tokyo and David Woodruff in Paris

2000

Overview

Bridgestone said yesterday it has increased output at the three factories in Japan that have been making replacement tires since last week, and it added production at a fourth factory. Bridgestone now expects to produce 650,000 replacement tires by the end of this year, or one-tenth of the tires needed for the U.S. recall. Last week, the company had projected its Japan plants would be able to churn out just 450,000 by the end of the year. Bridgestone hopes to complete the recall by early 2001. Last Wednesday, Bridgestone started sending tires to the U.S. from Japan by air cargo but had transported just 2,000 tires as of Sunday. Bridgestone's Japanese factories can't churn out more replacement tires immediately because of a shortage of molds for the American tire models. Before last week, Bridgestone hadn't made the American models in Japan. Michelin is increasing production of some tire models by 400% over the next three months to provide replacements for the recalled Firestone tires by moving other products out of three factories, in Oklahoma, Alabama and Nova Scotia. This will make room for additional capacity, said Nancy Banks, a spokeswoman at Michelin headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France. The company, which also sells under the BFGoodrich and Uniroyal brands, explains on its U.S. Web site how consumers can buy Michelin replacement tires and get reimbursed by Firestone.

• Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
• Subject: Corporate profits / Defective products / Factories / Industrial production / Prices / Tires