In 2009 China has counted the largest number of car registrations, attracting many investments to satisfy the demand from manufacturers of cars. Take advantage of this trend, Yokohama announced a plan to further develop its Hangzhou plant. In this site a 7-billion yen investment will increase the production capacity from 3 to 5.1 million of tires per year starting from January 2011. Hangzhou plant, devoted to the production of passenger-car and light-truck tires for the Chinese market, started operation in May 2003 and has already undergone 2 expansions carried out in 2005 and 2008.