OTR tyremaker Huitong transitions to new ownership

On 14 June 2022 Hou Yugang, chairman of Zaozhuang Mining Group, went to Zhongxing Huitong Tire for research purposes. During his public speech, Hou Yugang affirmed that Zaozhuang Mining Group’s takeover of OTR tyre specialist Huitong had transitioned smoothly following the transfer of equity.

Zhongxing Huitong, formerly known as Geo-Mineral Huitong, since it was previously controlled by Shandong Geo-Mineral. The tyre company was capable of producing 380,000 speciality tyres in 2018. In 2020 the figure dropped to 105,100. According to company data, Geo-Mineral Huitong suffered losses three consecutive years after 2017. And the tyre company’s shareholder Shandong Geo-Mineral was criticised by the state-owned assets supervision department of Shandong Province because “the company does not focus on the main business, and the side business is not profitable”.

In 2020, Shandong Geo-Mineral sold part of the equity of Geo-Mineral Huitong to Yankuang Group. In 2021, the Shandong government restructured its state-owned assets, merging Yankuang Group with Shandong Energy Group, the parent company of Zaozhuang Mining Group. At that time, some people in the industry pointed out that the two state-owned enterprises’ tyre businesses may be better off grouped under unified management.

In February 2022, Zaozhuang Mining Group officially became the major shareholder of Geo-Mineral Huitong (Photo: Huitong)

In February 2022, the signing ceremony for the Geo-Mineral Huitong’s strategic reorganisation and equity transfer was held in Jinan City, Shandong Province. Zaozhuang Mining Group obtained Geo-Mineral Huitong’s 70 per cent stake, officially incorporating the speciality tyre company into its rubber sector. In April 2022, Huitong changed its name at the state market supervision department from Geo-Mineral Huitong to Zhongxing Huitong.

After taking over Huitong, Zaozhuang Mining Group owns three tyre companies, namely Bayi Rubber (mainly engaged in all-steel radial tyres), Fengyuan Tire (engaged primarily in semi-steel radial tyres) and Zhongxing Huitong.

Fengyuan Tire

According to company literature, Shandong Fengyuan Tire Manufacturing Co., Ltd is located in the Chinese economic development zone of Yicheng, Zaozhuang City, Shandong.

The company reports that it is “designing and planning for the annual output of 20,000,000 semi steel radial tyres”. In other words, the company is aiming to produce a total of 20 million car and half a million truck tyres a year.

In order to achieve its goal the company reports that it has invested in VMI machinery as well “Italian wire calendaring”, “Troester complex production line” and “Donghe vulcanization” technology.

And what’s more, Fengyuan literature claims “the use of the world’s first application of nano material and the low temperature tyre/high temperature nitrogen vulcanization”. All this means the company has “reached the second phase of the European label…requirements”.

The company’s brands include: Farroad, Saferich and Yeada.

Bayi Rubber

Bayi Rubber Co., Ltd produces mainly truck tyres natural and conveyor belts in a factory covering 500 acres. According to the company the business has a 5-billion-yuan production value.

The company’s natural rubber production facility is located in Rayong, Thailand which has obvious advantages for raw material sourcing.

Brands include Bayi, Ansu, Safe-Holder and Wonderland. The manufacturing operation holds CCC, DOT, SONCAP, SNI, GSO, SASO INMETRO, ISO9001, ISO/TS16949:2002, ISO14001:2004 and GB/T28001-2001 certification.

Leading European tyre manufacturing equipment companies are amongst those supplying Fengyuan’s manufacturing technology (Photo: Fengyuan Tire)