Tokyo (April 27, 2005) – Bridgestone Corporation announced plans today to build a plant in the city of Huizhou in China’s Guangdong Province to produce radial tires for trucks and buses. The plant, scheduled to begin operation in January 2007, will be the company’s fourth tire plant in China. Bridgestone produces passenger car tires at plants in Wuxi and Tianjin and truck and bus tires at a plant in Shenyang. Investment in the Huizhou construction project will total about $300 million, according to the announcement.

The new tire plant will operate as Bridgestone (Huizhou) Tire Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation established on April 22. Bridgestone’s plans call for the plant’s production capacity to reach 5,000 tires a day in the first half of 2009. Management expects the plant to make Bridgestone even more responsive in supplying high-quality tires to serve fast-growing Chinese demand.

Bridgestone’s Huizhou plant will be the 50th plant in the company’s global production network for tires, which spans 23 nations. Those 50 plants include two new plants for producing passenger car and light truck tires in Brazil and Mexico, which are now under construction.

Bridgestone (Huizhou) Tire Co., Ltd.

Representative	Shigeyuki Tominaga, President
Capitalization	$105 million
Ownership	Bridgestone Corporation 100%
Establishment	April 22, 2005
Plant
Location	Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China
Start of production	January 2007
Site	About 48 hectares
Products	Radial tires for trucks and buses
Total investment	About $300 million
Production capacity	About 5,000 tires a day in the first half of 2009
Employees	About 1,000 in the first half of 2009