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UPDATE 1-Bridgestone to build third tyre plant in Thailand

(Recasts, adds details, share price)

TOKYO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Bridgestone Corp said on Tuesday it planned to build its third tyre plant in Thailand, a move that will help meet growing Asian demand and could secure the top spot in the world market for Japan's largest tyremaker.

Bridgestone said it would announce further details of the new plant later on Tuesday morning. An earlier report in the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the tyremaker would spend about 17 billion yen ($139.3 million) to build its third factory in Thailand and first new industrial tyre plant since 1990.

The paper said production at the plant, located in Chonburi, 60 km (40 miles) south of Bangkok, would be operating by September 2004 with an expected annual output of 900,000 tyres for trucks and buses.

The move could help catapult Bridgestone past rivals Michelin and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co , with which it is currently battling for the top spot in the global tyre market.

It would also offer further evidence that Bridgestone, battered for two years by the fallout from deadly accidents involving tyres made by its U.S. unit Firestone, had put the Firestone mess behind it.

Bridgestone posted a strong rebound in first-half earnings in August on the back of brisk U.S. exports and restructuring following the recall scandal, which nearly destroyed its U.S. Firestone brand.

At the same time, it announced a $250 million boost to global capacity, its first major expansion since recalling thousands of tyres two years ago after hundreds of accidents involving Firestone tyres and mostly Ford Motor Co Explorers.

The Nihon Keizai said on Tuesday that Bridgestone's third factory in Thailand would initially focus on exporting tyres to North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but the company eventually planned to ship tyres from the plant to locations in Thailand and other parts of Asia, including China.

Bridgestone may also boost production at existing factories in Rangsit and Nongkhae in an effort to develop Thailand into a strategic base in Asia -- where demand is booming as highways expand -- the newspaper said.

Shares in Bridgestone were down 1.65 percent at 1,611 yen at 0100 GMT, while the key Nikkei average was down 1.26 percent. ($1=122.06 yen)