Specialising in Specialty Tyres

Midland Specialty Tire Co., Ltd.’s decision to focus on its could off-road and industrial tyre business has positioned it to weather the current economic storm well, company representatives told Tyres & Accessories in Shanghai. Speaking to T&A during September’s CITExpo, Midland executive director, Surwin Huang explained how the Hong-Kong funded tyre factory based, which is based in mainland China has been dedicated to developing and producing tyres for agricultural implement, industrial and construction equipment since its establishment in 2003.

Surwin Huang has 32 years of experience in the tyre business which began at Armour Tyre in Xuzhou China, as this company’s sales/export manager. In 2003 Huang founded Midland Specialty Tire Co., Ltd., starting his own career in tyre manufacturing.

Unlike his former employer, Huang wanted the new company to specialise in the specialty tyre market. (According to company representatives, Midland is the only tyre factory in China that focuses exclusively on producing these kinds of off-highway tyres.) Currently the company sells 250,000 units annually mostly to its leading markets (US, Europe and Australia).

As far as bringing Midland tyres into the UK is concerned, the Chinese company have been working with TYM International, supplying its Armpower brand for over a year now. And the working relationship is said to be going “really well”, with customers quickly taking to the new products. In addition to this, Midland ships Protector branded tyres to other well-known industrial/off-road distributors in the UK. Sales are said to be remaining good despite high oil and raw material prices through the year. In fact the company is actually planning to increase capacity in order to better support the order it is now receiving.

The company’s fastest growing range is its implement product line. According to Surwin Huang, Midland is the leading excavator tyre maker in China and the number one exporter of Chinese skidsteer tyres into Europe. When Tyres & Accessories interviewed Huang during CITExpo in September, Midland were exporting 15 – 20 containers of skid steer tyres to the US each month.

In addition to expanding the company’s production capacity, Midland are “listening to the customer” with regard expanding its overall product offering. The company’s latest release, the M-880 is one product of this kind of consultation. Midland reportedly offers new patterns for its current size range every year and new sizes for new machines as soon as is practically possible.

The M-880 tubeless implement and dumper tyre is currently available in 405/70-20 and 405/70-24 sizes.