Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company Limited: Double Coin

Along with the dawn of the 21st century, Shanghai has very quickly become the international economic trading capital of China. The city is the showcase of reform, increasingly attracting foreign investment in new business enterprises. Just outside the city centre is the industrial district of Min Hang and this is home to China’s largest tyre producer, Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company Limited.

The Shanghai Tyre & Rubber Company was incorporated on 4th July 1992. It was restructured from the two oldest tyre manufacturing plants in China, both having a history stretching back over seventy years, the Ta Chung Hua Rubber factory and the Tsen Tai Rubber factory. In the early 1930s these two tyre producers first established the brand names Double Coin and Warrior.

In September 1998 a joint venture was agreed with First Tractor Group of China to produce agricultural tyres, expanding the existing capacity by nearly 50 per cent to 900,000 tyres and consolidating its access to the agricultural market. In the same year the company completed a $95 million US dollar expansion programme at the Min Hang factories. Weak domestic demand and the Asian crisis did see a downturn in profits as the decade came to an end, at the same time, selling prices were cut by ten per cent in order to compete with some foreign, and particularly South Korean, tyres.

This was a setback, but no more than that. The company has shown itself to be extremely perceptive and very determined.Within the Shanghai Tyre Company today there are three principal tyre producing factories.

An all steel radial truck tyre plant manufacturing the Double Coin brand, and a passenger and light truck tyre radial factory producing the Warrior brand; this plant has been a joint venture with Michelin since March 2001. Finally, a bias-ply plant manufacturing passenger, truck, a massive range of agricultural, off-road, industrial and motorcycle tyres in a total of over 350 specifications. The company is the 15th biggest tyre producer in the world, employing over 11,000 people.