Bridgestone Corporation reportedly wants to capture a third of the growing passenger car market in India and is currently ramping up manufacturing capacity and dealership network across the country. The company has identified India as a significant growth market in the Asia- Pacific region, but has, however, adopted a wait-and-wait policy on expansion in the US and Europe. The company has a production facility at Pithampur near Indore and has announced an investment of INR 2.59 billion for expansion. This will increase production capacity by over 40% to 15,000 tyres per day by the middle of next year.

Bridgestone Corp. reported earnings results for the quarter and nine months ended September 2009. For the quarter, the company reported operating, recurring and net profits. For the nine months, the company reported a net loss of ¥27,461 million, against the year-before profit of ¥49,465 million. Operating profit fell 89.9% to ¥12,089 million, and sales were down 25.0% ¥1,873,960 million. The company revised earnings guidance for the year to December 2009. For the period, the company expects to report a group net loss of ¥10 billion against the earlier estimate of a ¥6-billion profit. The company revised down its group operating profit estimate to ¥60 billion from ¥61 billion and the sales projection to ¥2.59 trillion from ¥2.61 trillion, due to exchange losses stemming from falls in the value of the currencies of Brazil and other Latin American countries versus the dollar.

Bridgestone Corp. announced that it will stop supplying tires for Formula One racing in 2011. The company said it wants to focus its resources on core tire businesses. The company said the decision was due to a prolonged global slump. Bridgestone said it will not renew its contract that expires in late 2010.