(Adds earnings revision, details)
TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Bridgestone Corp , Japan's biggest tyre maker, said on Wednesday damage from a recent fire at one of its nine domestic plants would shave around 2.5 percent off its group net profit this year.
Bridgestone now expects the profit to total 78 billion yen for 2003 instead of the 80 billion yen it forecast last month.
It said the Tochigi plant, which accounts for 13 percent of Bridgestone's Japanese output, would not resume full production until September 2004, over a year after the fire destroyed much of the factory and 165,000 tyres on September 8.
Some production resumed last Saturday, and Bridgestone said that rebuilding the plant and replacing damaged equipment would cost 10 billion yen ($89 million).
Analysts had said that given Bridgestone's extensive inter-plant cooperation, the blast would have a limited impact on earnings.
Bridgestone, which vies with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and France's Michelin for supremacy in the global tyre market, has eight other plants in Japan, and more than 40 worldwide.
Bridgestone's client auto makers, including Toyota Motor , Nissan Motor , Honda Motor and truck makers Hino Motors and Isuzu Motors , have said the fire had little impact on their production.
But most were forced to procure tyres from other Bridgestone plants and rival tyre makers after inventory ran out.
The Tochigi plant, north of Tokyo, had been producing 6,700 tonnes of tyres a month for cars, trucks and buses.
Last month, Bridgestone reported a double-digit jump in half-year profits and lifted full-year forecasts for the second time in two months citing brisk sales globally.
It's newly revised forecast of a 78 billion yen net profit would still represent a 72 percent rise from last year.
Bridgestone also said it would expand capacity for truck and bus tyres at three plants in Japan -- including the Tochigi site -- and one in Thailand, since all of its factories worldwide were running at full capacity.
Shares in Bridgestone have skidded around seven percent from pre-fire levels, while rivals Yokohama Rubber and Sumitomo Rubber Industries have both gained.
Bridgestone shares closed up 0.84 percent at 1,561 yen, while the main Nikkei average gained 0.26 percent. ($1=112.31 yen)