Taiwan Hwa Fong Rubber Ind. Co., Ltd. proposed to invest THB 1.53 Billion (about USD 46.22 Million) in building a motorcycle and bicycle tire plant in Thailand in order to expand its production capacity in Thailand and meet the increasing needs in Southeast Asia, according to foreign media on October 3.

This company will be operated by Hwa Fong Rubber (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hwa Fong Rubber Ind. Co., Ltd. The first stage construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year.

Hwa Fong Rubber has two plants in Samut Prakan Province, Thailand, which produce 25,000 motorcycle tires and 32,000 bicycle tires every day. This company will mainly cooperate with Sumitomo Division Cables to sell tire products to Japanese motorcycle enterprises, such as Yamha Motorcycle Company and Honda Company.

In August, Hwa Fong Rubber received a bank loan of TWD 1.65 Billion (about USD 54.69 Million) from 7 domestic banks led by Bank of Taiwan. For the first nine months of this year, the sales revenue of Hwa Fong Rubber was TWD 3.93 Billion, a decrease of 5.23% compared with that of TWD 4.15 Billion last year.

Earlier this year, Hwa Fong Rubber set up a subsidiary in Indonesia and also planned to build a plant in this country. Besides Hwa Fong Rubber, the other two Taiwan tire companies, Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co. Ltd. and Kenda Rubber Industry Co., Ltd., also announced plans to expand their capacity in Indonesia this year.