Shandong Yinbao Tyre Group Spreads Its Wings

The Shandong Yinbao Tyre Group is set to embark on a programme of international expansion. Established in 1994, the company has become a famous name in China, designing, manufacturing and marketing tyres and inner tubes for the domestic market, under the brand names GoodTyre, Yinbao and Huibao. The product range is extensive and includes truck, agricultural and industrial tyres, as well as giant OTR tyres, for example, size 36.00 R51, plus a range of inner tubes. Products are already exported to over 50 countries, but the company, under the direction of chairman Mr. Yonghua Liu, has decided that the time is right to concentrate more on developing export business.

Manufacturing is carried out at three plants in China and Shandong Yinbao has built up a network of distributors to handle sales outside China. The products are all DOT, ECE, INMETRO and SNI approved, among others. As well as adopting a policy of continuous quality improvement, the company is dedicated to extending the life of its tyres and, as an example, its website proudly mentions the fact that the company’s heavy-duty, radial truck tyres are capable of running for 200,000 kilometres.

Long-term plans

Despite the continual increase in commodity prices, Shandong Yinbao Tyre Group pledges that it will not compromise on the quality of its raw materials, recognising that quality is vital if its export programme is to succeed. As a matter of interest, the company estimates that, since the end of 2007, rising raw material costs have added the equivalent of an extra 16.4 euros to the cost of making a tyre – and this does not into account rises in such areas as the cost of labour, or increases in the price of energy.

There is no doubt that Shandong Yinbao Tyre Group is ambitious and aims to make a name for itself at “the top of the world tyre industry”. Pragmatically, this ambition is tempered by a realisation of the size of the task that the company has set itself and an acceptance of the fact that it will not be achieved overnight. However, like so many other companies from the Far East, Shandong Yinbao Tyre Group has a perception of timescales vastly different to that of most western firms and the company is definitely planning for the long term.