US-based Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers, PC (KA/AEPC) has secured a contract from Japanese firm Yokohama Tire (YTC) to design its new commercial tire manufacturing plant in West Point, Mississippi.
Under the deal, the KA/AEPC will design first phase of the project, which includes a 931,000sqft factory consisting of production, warehousing and operations facilities.
The company will initially invest $300m in the new facility, while the construction will start on a 500acre land in summer 2013.
Following scheduled completion in October 2015, the new facility will have a production capacity of about one million tires annually.
YTC senior vice president and chief strategy officer Thomas Masuguchi said, "The demand for Yokohama's commercial tire products is outpacing our current production capacity and the faster we move along the plant's timeline, the faster we can increase our supply to meet our dealer requirements."
KA/AEPC design director Yoshi Koshiyama said, "We look forward to being a partner in translating Yokohama's strategic vision for their new plant to reality by providing extensive services from Building Information Modeling (BIM) to structural and interior design."
