Japan’s Yokohama Rubber corporation acquires mining industry tire factory in Romania
Yokohama Rubber, a Japanese corporation with a history of over 107 years, has purchased a tire factory for the mining industry, as well as for earthmoving and oversized transport machinery, located in Drobeta Turnu Severin, according to Profit.ro.
The factory, built in the 1970s–1980s, was put up for sale by the judicial liquidator of the company Euro Tyres Manufacturing SRL, which went bankrupt at the end of January 2025 after nearly 7 years of insolvency.
The company owns an industrial platform spanning over 19 hectares in the city of Drobeta Turnu Severin. The company's assets were offered for sale through direct negotiation, with a starting price of USD 35 million plus VAT. The sale includes 38 industrial and administrative buildings, production halls, as well as equipment and tire manufacturing installations. There were no other bidders.
The buyer submitted a 5% guarantee, amounting to USD 1.75 million. Romania’s Commission for the Examination of Foreign Direct Investments is now analyzing the deal in order for it to be finalized.
Euro Tyres Manufacturing ended 2023 with losses of nearly RON 30 million (EUR 6 million), a turnover of only around RON 623,000 (EUR 121,000), and an average of 31 employees. Before entering insolvency in 2018, the company had years with turnovers of tens of millions of lei and over 600 employees, but it consistently operated at a loss.
Yokohama Rubber, an industrial conglomerate with annual revenues of over USD 7 billion and profits of over half a billion dollars last year, was founded in 1917 and owns numerous tire and rubber product factories across all continents, including 8 in Japan. The company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with major shareholders being Japanese financial institutions, the largest currently being Nomura Asset Management, which holds nearly 11% of the capital.
(Photo source: 横浜ゴム株式会社（The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.)
