Jinyu: Further international tyre factories on the agenda

With an increasing number of countries and regional groupings implementing anti-dumping and countervailing policies against Chinese-produced, Chinese tyremakers are describing the situation as “not optimistic”. However, facing the harsh international trade environment head-on, Jinyu Tire reports that it has a number of solutions for the current market problems.

Liu Zhiyuan, the general manager of Jinyu’s sales centre, explained the company’s developing strategy: “Chinese tyre enterprises should go global (manufacturing, sales and R&D) and build themselves gradually into an international enterprise”.

Specifically, this means overseas localized production, Jinyu Tire Group has always paid attention to, along with the development of overseas markets. According to the company, Jinyu actively plans the layout of overseas factory construction from the perspective of medium- and long-term strategic planning. And Jinyu’s Vietnam factory, its first overseas production base, exemplifies this philosophy.

Jinyu Vietnam’s opening ceremony took place on 18 June 2020 and the first tyre rolled off the production line on 30 March 2021. From Jinyu’s perspective, investing in the Vietnam factory laid a “solid foundation for the group in its globalization strategy”, a strategy that includes Vietnam’s domestic market and customers around the world.

There is also the suggestion that further international manufacturing expansion is on the agenda: “Jinyu will also actively prepare for the construction of new overseas tyre factories in the future,” Liu added. However, further details of exactly where these will be located have not yet been made available.

International production plus localised sales and R&D needed for Chinese tyre success

The traditional model of expanding overseas via agents is no longer a suitable route to market for Chinese tyre manufacturers in light of today’s “harsh and complex international trade situation”, according to Jinyu. Rather, Chinese tire enterprises need to go out and build their own overseas localized sales channels. For its part, Jinyu has set up branches in two major sales regions in Europe and the United States and has hired “experienced truck and bus tyre sales staff” to establish overseas local sales channels for Jinyu.

Referring to the establishment of Jinyu’s overseas sales channels, Liu Zhiyuan added: “Jinyu tyre overseas sales channel localization operation, greatly improve the overseas competitiveness of Jinyu Tire.”
However, good factories and strong distribution channels are not the only considerations. At the end of the day, the core foundation of tyre companies is “good products”.

To this end, Jinyu Tire reports that the company is “very experienced in R&D and going global”. As Liu Zhiyuan explained: “In order to produce tyre products suitable for the American market, Jinyu Tire’s R&D and sales staff will go to the United States together to conduct field investigations and surveys and collect data with the US JINYU sales staff, in order to lay the foundation for the development of brand-new products for the US market.”

As a result of the promotion of overseas production capacity and sales channels as well as the localization of product research and development, Jinyu Tire reports that its overseas trade risk has been “significantly reduced, and the competitive force in the international market was enhanced.”

Indeed, product quality is said to be “closely related to consumers and enterprises” and the company specifically commits that Jinyu Tire “never produces any low-quality tyre products to meet the needs of the lower sector of market.” And because of good-quality products, the relationship between Jinyu and its customers is reportedly getting closer. As Liu Zhiyuan says: “Jinyu Tire always steps forward with a management principle that it provides good-quality products and high quality service for its consumers all the time.”

Founded in 1995, Jinyu Tire Group has 5.5 million units of annual truck tyre capacity. Furthermore, its sales network covers over 100 countries and regions including Asia, Middle East, Europe, America and Africa.