Bridgestone Posts First-half Loss on Recall Fallout

Reuters reported that Japanese tire giant Bridgestone Corp said on Friday it skidded into the red in the first half of 2001 in the wake of a devastating tire-recall scandal by its U.S. unit, Firestone. Bridgestone President Shigeo Watanabe said fallout from the recall led to a group net loss of 30.57 billion yen ($250.3 million) for the first half of 2001, but the tire-maker would still be profitable for the full year and could plug the bleeding at Firestone. ``We still think we will be able to return Firestone to the black in the second half of 2002,'' Watanabe told a news conference. An extraordinary loss of $570 million taken by Firestone in June to pay for lawsuits and clear up other costs related to the tire recall was the main factor behind Bridgestone's drop from an 18.90 billion yen net profit in the first half of