OTR Tyre Specialist Qizhou Diversifying its Range

In the past ten years Qingdao Qizhou Rubber Co. Ltd. has striven to expand its business in export markets and to facilitate this invested approximately US$14 million in the construction of a OTR tyre new factory in 2003. Since the completion of the facility in Qingdao (Shandong Province) in September 2004 the OTR tyre specialist Qizhou has been able to produce around 100,000 tyres per annum. Central to the company’s range is the “Marcher” brand, through which the manufacturer of the “world’s largest OTR tyres” (59/90 R63) is represented in most corners of the globe and in the original equipment market, delivering to, as an example, LeTourneau Technologies for fitment to its dump trucks. The US firm utilises crossply “Marcher” OTR tyres in size 70/70-57 84PR with a L4 tread; deliveries to Australia and North America are made and even involve the largest available LeTourneau dumpers, disclosed Qingdao Qizhou export manager Gavin Liu.

The Chinese OTR tyre specialist is proud of such business connections, and at the CITExpo show in Shanghai presented a 57-inch “giant tyre” to the public. This size tyre was first produced by Qizhou in Qingdao in 2007, however to date only a few dozen pieces of this giant tyre have been manufactured.

Since completion of further manufacturing facility construction work in 2006, Qizhou has exported its products to around 100 countries and enjoys an export turnover of $100 million. To maximise the potential of increasing this turnover figure, two years ago Qizhou Rubber took its first step into radialisation. Since then a proportion of the 25-inch OTR tyres manufactured have been radials. Larger OTR tyres will not be available in radial variants for the time being, however. As of late the company has also developed radial agricultural tyres; these products will most likely be made available this year, the export manager notes. At the moment no plans exist to introduce passenger car or truck radials.