BRIDGESTONE Corp said today that it plans to raise the prices of tire products sold on China's mainland by as much as 10 percent starting next month to counter rising raw-material costs.

Bridgestone, Japan's biggest tire maker, said that tire prices for cars, trucks and buses will increase 7 to 10 percent on the mainland, according to a corporate statement.

The price increases came after rises of between 3 and 5 percent in March after cost-control methods failed to offset skyrocketing prices of crude oil and rubber, the statement said.

"The growth in raw-material costs was higher than expected after the price hikes in March," Bridgestone said in the statement. "Measures to ease mounting costs were not enough to balance out such significant increases."

During the second quarter of this year, the costs of crude oil jumped about 40 percent while that of rubber rose by more than 20 percent, which significantly affected production costs, Bridgestone said.

Bridgestone set up its China mainland investment arm in 2004 and now operates four manufacturing facilities in the country.

Bridgestone said late last month that it would lift prices for tires, tubes and flaps sold in Japan beginning in September by between 3 and 10 percent to mitigate the rising cost of raw materials.