Techking’s Heze plant ready for production

Techking Tires has announced the completion of the greenfield factory that it, along with an unnamed partner, erected in China’s Shandong province. The plant is located in the city of Heze and will produce passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres. Techking says the plant will have an end annual capacity of ten million tyres, an output that will be reached in two phases over a period of five to seven years. The Heze plant began trial operations in November 2012.

The project to build the new plant was known as ‘Spark’; prior to initiating the project, Techking reports it invested significantly in collecting market information within China and studying tyre demand. The first products manufactured in the new factory will target certain original equipment and replacement market segments within the Chinese market. These will, says Techking, deliver “application specific” PCR products to the domestic market, something it claims as an industry first. A given example of such application specific products is the first tyre planned for the project, a low rolling resistance tyre designed for electric vehicles. The second tyre intended for production will service the minivan market in China, an area where cross-ply tyres are traditionally used; Techking says its radial minivan pattern will reduce punctures and enhance driving comfort and safety.

Overseas markets will also be served with passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres from the new plant, starting from the second quarter of 2013.