Sumitomo closes US tire plant

Japanese Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (SRI) announced that it will stop production at its tire plant in Buffalo (New York, USA) and dissolve its subsidiary Sumitomo Rubber USA LLC (SRUSA) "after taking the necessary steps".

"Sumitomo, along with its US subsidiaries, has made every effort to improve production structure and operational efficiency, but the situation remains difficult due to the decline in productivity and profitability of SRUSA, and it will be difficult to improve the plant's profitability in the long term," the company said.

The statement from Sumitomo also states that "we carefully considered possible measures to restructure production in North America", and "since the company has come to the conclusion that the tires produced at the SRUSA plant cannot have the necessary profitability in the local market, it was decided to stop all production activities and liquidate the enterprise".

In October 2015, Sumitomo became the sole owner of Goodyear Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America Ltd., which was renamed SRUSA, and the Goodyear plant in Buffalo was part of that deal. Currently, the plant produces tires for passenger and light commercial vehicles, trucks, buses, and motorcycles, and the developments will be transferred to the SRI America Inc. structure and "will remain in North America".

In 2021, the company announced that it plans to invest $122 million in expanding the Buffalo plant and increasing tire production capacity from 8,250 to 14,300 units per day. By the end of 2023, Sumitomo planned to almost double production of passenger and light commercial vehicle tires at the plant - from 6,500 to 12,000 units daily.

According to MTD, the Buffalo plant is the smallest for the Sumitomo tire block and the company's only tire production facility in the USA. As of the end of September 2024, the plant employed 1,550 people.

The plant was originally opened over 100 years ago, in 1920, and had a net loss of $7.6 million in 2023, with sales of $455.5 million.