Shaanxi Yanchang Considering PCR Plant

Heard of Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Rubber Co., Ltd? We hadn’t either before last year’s Reifen China in Shanghai. However, after our brief introduction at last year’s show this year the company returned to the exhibition with another substantial stand in a similarly prime position. This time round company representatives brought with them news that despite being founded as recently as December 2008, it is already well on the well to producing 1 million truck tyres a year at its Xianyang truck tyre production plant. With the company’s passenger car radial line due to break ground in 2013, this could be a production base to watch.

According to company representatives, Shaanxi Yanchang’s new truck and bus radial tyre production plant is already able to produce 600,000 units annually, with the ability to produce 1 million units a year scheduled to go live by the end of 2011. Like many Chinese factories at the moment, Shaanxi Yanchang is currently focussing on sales to the domestic market.

Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Rubber Co., Ltd. is, as you would imagine, related to Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co., Ltd. Based in Fenghe new Area, Qindu District, Xianyang, the firm has registered capital of 800 million yuan and recent announced it would pump 4.85 billion yuan into the construction of a 20 million unit a year radial tyre production plant. According to company literature, this means this was largest single tyre plant construction project in China at the time it was approved. The building is scheduled to take place in two phases over a period of five years, which will result in the production of 4 million “full steel heavy load” truck and bus radials and 16 million “semi steel” – presumably car and light truck – tyres.

As if all this wasn’t enough, the company reports that it owns “advanced production and inspection equipment and complete quality assurance systems.”

Once all the production lines are put into full operation, the company expects to realize annual sales revenues of in the region of 12.7 billion yuan (£1.2 billion; 1.4 billion euros; US$1.9 billion) – ambitious plans indeed. Sales will be split between domestic, export and OE destinations. As far as passenger car radials are concerned, the percentage split between these destinations is projected to be 50:30:20 between domestic replacement, export replacement and OE sales respectively.