Jiangsu General renovates the Wuxi tyre factory’s TBR line

On 11 November, Jiangsu General announced it will invest 880 million yuan (approximately £98 million; €113 million) in renovating the all-steel radial tyre production line at its Wuxi plant. The renovation cycle is 18 months. After completion, Jiangsu General will increase its annual production capacity of 6 million semi-steel radial tyres.

The reason given by Jiangsu General is that “competition in China’s all-steel radial tyre market has become increasingly fierce and product gross profit margins are low”. At the same time, as the tyre manufacturer develops, the production capacity of semi-steel radial tyres “can no longer meet the growing order demands of customers”.

Jiangsu General did not disclose how much all-steel radial tyre production capacity the Wuxi plant will be reduced, but said that before the transformation, “domestic production capacity is still dominated by all-steel radial tyres, which is relatively single”. The tyre manufacturer revealed that since 2017, it has gradually invested in constructing 6 million semi-steel radial tyres in China. Meanwhile, the production capacity structure of the production bases in Thailand and Cambodia is dominated by semi-steel radial tyres.

Jiangsu General believes that “after the completion of the project, it will be conducive to leveraging the scale benefits of the product and enhancing its industry competitiveness in the international tyre market”. At the same time, “the newly constructed production line uses the most advanced production equipment, which can reduce losses in various production links, improve production efficiency, help save costs, and further improve manufacturing levels”.