When a factory that had been in operation for 44 years and had an average daily production capacity of nearly 12,000 tires suddenly pressed the stop button, the entire industry was shocked.
On May 11, 2026, the global tire giant Bridgestone of Japan officially announced that it would close its tire manufacturing base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, China, and cease production from now on.
This is not a temporary emergency adjustment, but a decisive “disconnect” made by the multinational tire giant on global production capacity, supply chain and business model in the era of inventory.
As soon as the news came out, 551 employees faced resettlement, and Taiwan’s tire manufacturing industry was hit again. It also made it clear to the outside world: the golden age of tires that relied on large-scale factory construction and expansion of production capacity to dominate the world is quietly coming to an end.
This shutdown is not a temporary decision.
As early as May 8, the factory had notified employees of its suspension plan; on the 11th, approximately 551 employees were uniformly arranged to go to multiple places for consultation and communication. The Hsinchu County Government Labor Department also received a large number of layoff notices, and the procedures complied with local regulations.
Bridgestone emphasized in its official statement that this move is part of the group’s global strategic adjustment. In the future, the Taiwan market will completely shift to a sales and service orientation, ensuring stable supply through the global supply chain, while strengthening channel layout and cooperation with dealers, and continuing to deepen the local market.
For affected employees, the company is committed to providing severance packages and career transition support that are better than legal standards to reduce the impact of transition as much as possible.
The closing of the Hsinchu factory is just the latest step in Bridgestone’s global “downsizing plan.”
From 2025 to the present, this industry giant has been closing factories and selling assets intensively, covering multiple core regions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, forming a wave of production capacity optimization sweeping the world.
Bridgestone designated 2025 as the year of emergency crisis response, and intensively shut down and sold inefficient and non-core assets around the world.
The La Vergne truck and bus tire plant in Tennessee, USA, closed in July. This plant, which had been in operation for 53 years and had an annual production capacity of approximately 2 million units, affected 658 employees, and its production capacity was gradually transferred to other efficient bases in North America. The plant in Biscay, Spain, laid off 232 employees during the same period, and part of its production capacity was transferred to the Polish plant with better costs to cope with the decline in demand for commercial vehicle tires and cost pressures in Europe.
The Argentine factory will lay off employees twice from 2024 to 2025, totaling about 740 people, to alleviate the continued losses caused by high local inflation and weak demand.
The upstream links shrank simultaneously. From July to August, the carbon black factories in Thailand and Mexico were sold to Tokai Carbon and Cabot, and the company exited the self-production of non-core raw materials.
The pace of restructuring will further accelerate in 2026.
In January, it sold two steel cord businesses in Shenyang and Rayong, Thailand, to Bekaert for 60 million euros, involving approximately 550 employees, and signed a long-term supply agreement to ensure the supply of core materials.
In April, the ETB retail business with 32 stores in the UK was sold, ending six years of terminal retail expansion and concentrating resources on the main high-margin tire business.
The golf ball production and testing plant in Georgia, USA, will be closed on June 30, affecting 86 production employees. The manufacturing process will be integrated back to the Japanese base and the non-tire business segments will be streamlined.
In the Chinese market, the Shenyang tire factory was closed in 2024 and was later acquired by Sailun Group. The Huizhou factory has also completed the suspension of production and exit, and its focus in China has shifted to high-end tire sales and services.
Behind the series of “shutdown, suspension, and sale” operations is not a passive retreat under operating difficulties, but a precise strategic turn. The core reasons revolve around the three dimensions of cost, market, and strategy.
The continuous squeeze from the external environment is the direct trigger.
In recent years, global raw material, energy, and logistics costs have remained high. Coupled with the impact of U.S. tariff policies, the advantages of traditional manufacturing bases such as Taiwan have rapidly faded.
In August 2025, the United States implemented a 20% reciprocal tariff on Taiwan, which is higher than the 15% tax rate in Japan and South Korea, which directly weakens the competitiveness of local tire exports. Superimposed on the island’s limited market size, manufacturing profit margins continue to be compressed.
At the same time, the global tire market has shifted from incremental competition to inventory competition. Low-end products have meager profits, traditional businesses such as commercial vehicle tires have sluggish growth, and inefficient production capacity has become a burden for the group.
The inherent need for strategic focus is the fundamental driving force.
Bridgestone’s 2024-2026 medium-term business plan clearly proposes to shift from a “large and comprehensive” entire industry chain expansion to a “fine and specialized” high value-added track to create “Dan Totsu” core competitiveness.
By divesting upstream heavy assets such as carbon black and steel cord, as well as non-tire businesses such as retail and golf, the group quickly recovered funds and concentrated its resources on high-profit areas such as high-end passenger car tires, new energy special tires, and mining giant tires.
Data shows that its orders for special tires for new energy vehicles will exceed 5 million in 2025, and the sales volume of large-size tires above 18 inches will rise to 35%. High-end products will become the core engine of profit growth.
The long-term layout of supply chain optimization is the key support.
Bridgestone abandoned the traditional “self-sufficiency” model and turned to global collaborative division of labor, retaining highly competitive production capacity, transferring or shutting down low-efficiency and high-cost production capacity, and relying on the global network to flexibly allocate supplies.
This asset-light model can not only reduce operational risks, but also respond quickly to market changes, adapt to the rapid iteration needs of the new energy vehicle era, and cope with supply chain challenges brought about by global geopolitical fluctuations.
Bridgestone’s large-scale contraction is not an isolated incident, but the epitome of the common strategic adjustments of the world’s leading tire companies.
Currently, international tire giants such as Bridgestone, Michelin, and Goodyear are simultaneously advancing the route of shutting down inefficient production capacity, divesting non-core businesses, and focusing on high-end and electrification transformation.
The entire industry is shifting from scale expansion competition in the past to quality competition centered on product strength, and industry concentration continues to increase.
The focus of competition in the future will be on the three dimensions of technology research and development, brand premium, and supply chain efficiency. The living space of small and medium-sized tire companies will be further compressed.
For regional manufacturing bases, the reshuffle effect is accelerating.
Due to restrictions on tariffs, costs and market size, the proportion of local manufacturing in Taiwan’s tire manufacturing industry continues to decline. Leading companies such as Cheng Hsin, Kenda, and Nangang have shifted their production capacity and profit focus to Southeast Asia. Taifeng Tire will close and sell the Taoyuan Guanyin plant in 2025, completely withdrawing from local production in Taiwan.
There is a clear trend of Taiwan’s tire industry manufacturing links moving overseas, and the hollowing out of local manufacturing has become increasingly prominent.
For China’s tire industry, opportunities and challenges coexist.
On the one hand, foreign-funded enterprises such as Bridgestone have shrunk their traditional general-purpose production capacity and vacated the large-scale mainstream supporting and replacement market, creating greater room for growth for Chinese enterprises such as Zhongce, Linglong, and Sailun, and the pace of domestic substitution has further accelerated. On the other hand, foreign-invested enterprises are concentrating resources on the high-end tire track and continuing to invest in new energy-specific tires and large-size high value-added products, forming a certain degree of technology accumulation and brand advantages.
Local tire companies still face competitive pressure in the process of high-end breakthrough, but because of this, the entire industry is forced to speed up technology research and development, quality upgrades and brand building, and continue to narrow the gap with international giants.
From the closure of Taiwan’s Hsinchu factory to the downsizing of many global industries, every step taken by Bridgestone reflects the survival choices of traditional manufacturing industries in the second half of globalization.
Giving up redundant production capacity is not a recession, but a proactive evolution that removes burdens and focuses on the core; closing old factories is not a retreat, but a strategic restructuring that adapts to the market and faces the future.
Under the triple pressure of rising costs, demand transformation, and intensifying competition, the global tire industry is undergoing a profound supply-side reform.
Bridgestone’s “disconnection” may be the only way for all traditional manufacturing giants – only by saying goodbye to the obsession with scale in the past, focusing on core advantages and embracing technological changes can we gain a firm foothold in the stock era and survive the industry cycle.
