OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2011. The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it will participate in Auto Shanghai 2011, which runs from April 19, through April 28 (April 19 and 20 are press days), in Shanghai, China. Yokohama Rubber will highlight its environmental technology, orange oil compounding technique, and exhibit its new eco tire BluEarth.

Orange oil makes rubber more pliable for improved road grip, contributing to enhance both driving and environmental performance. It is used not only in ordinary commercial tires but in racing tires for top-class motor sports including CTCC*, WTCC** and, in Japan, Super GT series. The Yokohama Rubber booth will feature an explanation of orange oil compounding technique as well as displays of tires using the technology: the premium comfort tire ADVAN dB V551, released in China in March, and racing tires for the CTCC, to which Yokohama Rubber provides one-make tires.

BluEarth is an environmentally, human and socially friendly tire series to be marketed around the world. It is already available in Japan and Europe and will be released in China in this fall. Exhibiting a prototype, Yokohama Rubber will endeavor to improve recognition of BluEarth. During the auto show, the company will hold a press conference for its business strategy in China on April 20. Its activities in collaboration with the China Environmental Protection Foundation will also be announced to the press on April 24. On this occasion, popular actor Louis Koo, Yokohama Rubber’s celebrity spokesman in China, will visit the exhibition site and take part in the press conference as Yokohama’s environmental ambassador.

In China, internationally prestigious auto shows are staged alternately in Beijing and Shanghai. In Auto China 2010 in Beijing last year, 2,100 companies participated from 16 countries and regions. That show drew a record 780,000 visitors.