Sumitomo Rubber to build tire plant in Brazil - Nikkei

May 17 (Reuters) - Japanese tire maker Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd plans to spend 28 billion yen ($346.6 million) to build an automobile tire plant in Brazil, The Nikkei business daily said.

The company is considering building its first production unit in central and South America in the southern state of Parana, which borders the big tire market of Sao Paulo, the Nikkei said.

A local firm will be set up by July and construction work at the site is scheduled to begin next year, the newspaper said.

Production is expected to start in the autumn of 2013 and the company will gradually raise production at the plant to 15,000 tires a day in 2016, the business daily added.

Sumitomo currently sells tires exported from Japan in central and South America, the paper reported.

The plant will employ 1600 people, the Nikkei said.

New car sales in Brazil have risen 12 percent to 3.51 million units in 2010, making it the world's fourth-largest market, the business daily said.

Amid strong demand, Sumitomo Rubber's sales of replacement tires in central and South America zoomed 35 percent last year, the Nikkei added.  ($1 = 80.790 Japanese Yen) (Reporting by Mayuresh Tungare in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/sumitomorubber-idUSL4E7GG3F020110516)