Jiangsu General to build joint-venture tyre factory in Baotou, Inner Mongolia

On 5 May, Jiangsu General announced plans to build a tyre plant in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, China. The total investment is about 1.51 billion yuan (about £170 million; €200 million). After completion, it will produce 1.2 million all-steel radial truck tyres and 100,000 OTR tyres per year. Jiangsu General says it is “the first modern tyre factory in Baotou City”.

Tyrepress China learned that the board of directors of Jiangsu General have considered and approved the motion to build a tyre factory in Baotou. Meanwhile, Jiangsu General has signed a contract with the government of Qingshan District, Baotou City, where the plant is located.

Furthermore, Jiangsu General plans to build the factory as a joint venture (JV) enterprise in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Jiangsu General JV stockholding accounts for 85 per cent of the shares. The tyremaker said the investment is mainly due to Baotou’s rich industrial resources and favourable electricity costs. As an important energy, raw material, rare earth, new coal chemical and equipment manufacturing base in China, Baotou City and its surrounding areas have a relatively stable demand for truck tyres. In the Qingshan District that Jiangsu General chose this time, there is a heavy-duty truck manufacturer, Beiben Trucks Group, and several special vehicle manufacturers. At the same time, Baotou City has a well-developed wind power generation industry, and the electricity cost of industrial enterprises is relatively low.

Jiangsu General said constructing a factory in Baotou City aligns with its “5X strategy”. The company intends to have five production bases, five R&D centres and reach an annual production capacity of more than 50 million tyres in the next ten years. The company already has three tyre manufacturing plants in Jiangsu, China, Thailand and Cambodia.

The Thailand factory can produce 1 million all-steel radial tyres annually and 6 million semi-steel radial tyres. In the first quarter of 2023, Jiangsu General’s Thailand plant decided to add an annual production line of 300,000 all-steel radial tyres to expand its production capacity further. The Cambodian factory rolled off the first tyre in March 2023 and started production, and it is expected to release full production capacity by the end of 2024.

Not long ago, Jiangsu General terminated plans to build a tyre factory in Anqing, Anhui, China. With the Baotou plant, Jiangsu General will have four tyre manufacturing bases. At present, the company did not disclose the construction location of the fifth plant.