Bridgestone to Produce Passenger Car and Light Truck Tires in Hungary

Tokyo May 12, 2005;(JCNN) - Bridgestone's wholly owned subsidiary Bridgestone Europe NV/SA will build a tire plant in Hungary. The new plant will manufacture radial tires for passenger vehicles and light trucks. Bridgestone plans to invest a total of about 190 million euros in plant and equipment.

BIRD (Bridgestone Innovative & Rational Development), its proprietary production system that completely automates all the processes of tire production from material processing to product inspection, will be introduced to the new plant for the first time in Europe.

Plant construction will begin in 2006. Scheduled to be operational in 2008, the new plant will have a daily output capacity of 8,000 tires by the first half of 2009.