Blue Skies: Trelleborg’s environmental investments in China

Trelleborg Wheel Systems is implementing new environmental measures at its facilities in China. These measures are linked to the country’s “three-year action plan for Blue Sky protection” to reduce air pollution, as per the 2016 Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Paolo Pompei, president of the Trelleborg Wheel Systems business area, outlines the work carried out at the facilities in China since 2017: “Investments aimed at increasing sustainable production in the Xingtai and Hebei facilities have led to a number of key improvements. The coal boiler has been dismantled and replaced with two new gas boilers equipped with advanced systems for the reduction and online monitoring of SOx and NOx emissions; ventilation and VOC filtering systems have been installed in all production workshops; REACH compliant materials have replaced others; and in April 2020, an additional investment was made to replace the existing UV+plasma+active carbon filters with post-combustion systems that will reduce mixing emission.

“Through these transformative actions, the two Chinese facilities have set the pace for all Trelleborg Wheel Systems sites worldwide, as they represent the highest example of innovation and models of excellence that act as a template for the whole manufacturing footprint,” adds Pompei.

China manufacturing presence since 2011

Trelleborg Wheel Systems operates 15 plants worldwide, including two in China. Trelleborg inaugurated its Xingtai manufacturing site in China’s Hebei province in 2011, and primarily produces specialty tyres for the agricultural sector there. “With this establishment, we became the first non-Chinese company to build an agricultural tyre production facility in China,” comments Pompei. Two years after it opened its first plant, Trelleborg enlarged its manufacturing platform with the acquisition of a solid tyre plant in Hebei.

The two facilities in China produce radial, cross-play and solid tyres for farming, forestry, agro-industrial, industrial and mining applications in 16- to 54-inch dimensions. Pompei notes that Trelleborg Wheel Systems has been “greening” its facilities for the best part of a decade, introducing environmentally sustainable technologies into production.