MINING TYRES
Yokohama’ s view from the top
IM caught up with Loic Ravasio, President Yokohama OTR on the completion of two new plants plus its mining tyres growth trajectory
Q Following completion of two new plants in Mexico and India and the ramp up of the Romania location, plus the Japan plant, will the capacity for large mining tyres approach what it was from the former Goodyear facilities?
The main objective behind the acquisition of Goodyear OTR by Yokohama Rubber Company was growth. Our goal is to become number two in the OTR segment. With the addition of greenfield sites in Mexico and India to our existing footprint, capacity will be higher than the existing capacity from Goodyear facilities. Also, this expanded footprint will allow us to move to a‘ local for local’ model as we will be producing OTR tyres in every region, closer to our customers. These investments reflect the confidence we have in this growing segment where tyre performance and services are key. We look forward to sharing more details as these facilities progress toward completion.
Q When is the product supply agreement for OTR Tyres with Goodyear set to end?
The product supply agreement with Goodyear company has been designed to protect our customers and allow us to transfer our products in a structured manner. While we are ramping up our own capacity around the world, the PSA agreement allows us to procure from Goodyear for up to seven years, depending on the site.
Q Has supply of the larger tyre sizes eg 57” and 63” remained relatively stable following the transition, and have most former Goodyear mining customers stayed as major customers- plus have any new customers been added postacquisition?
The surface mining segment has been stable and quite dynamic since the acquisition and we have been able not only to keep the majority of our long standing customers but win also some new customers around the world that we never worked with in the past. The prospect of combining Japanese quality with Goodyear performance and additional capacities for our products has clearly helped us to gain new market share. During the transition, we have maintained our service levels, and we are step by step improving it even further. Our customers have been very collaborative to help us during that transition too. We are pleased to see that our relationship is more a partnership than a simple supplier / buyer one.
Q Will the branding ultimately progress to Yokohama across the board and if so, is a roadmap being put in place for that? For now does it remain Yokohama up to a certain diameter and Goodyear above this?
With the acquisition we also have the license for the brand Goodyear OTR. Ultimately, all our products will be branded Yokohama. The length and the conditions of the license give us enough flexibility to properly plan for this brand switch toward Yokohama while consulting continuously our customers. For the moment, we continue to market our OTR tyre range under both brands offering very complementary portfolios leveraging strengths of each, and ready for growth. we have proven with introductory tyres that exactly what we said was going to happen does happen- that our products will bring you 5 % less cost per hour at least, but still be in the 95th percentile of the performance of a tyre from the big two. So our initial cost is slightly lower, but the performance is almost as good. Our ability to lower costs but not at the expense of performance, is our competitive advantage in the industry.”
Today, MAXAM is also a close partner with Kal Tire who act as a reseller for its tyres in key mining markets like Mexico, Chile,
C
South Africa and Canada. Kal Tire is the premium mining tyre management company
M worldwide.
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Sanders added:“ Site analysis is another plus for MAXAM in terms of tyre and site CM evaluations and audits, including TKPH, to
MY determine if a minesite is using the right
CY compounds; as haul road designs and conditions can change. We try and do site
CMY evaluations at least quarterly, but depending
K on how many units we have running, we might do it even more frequently.”
These visits also help MAXAM educate the operations and maintenance teams on best practice, both operationally and in the mechanical side of the business.“ And we do that with the training of their operators, which we do for nothing because that’ s part of the support of our product – others charge for these reports. We also do this for quarry and mid-sized mines not just the largest sites.”
Monaflex _ July. pdf 3 17 / 06 / 2026 00:49
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International Mining | JULY 2026 41