An inclusive idealist. I am a Masters graduate from the University of Westminster. I’ve read over 1000 books, traveled to every province in China as a backpacker, and volunteered with several NGOs in Southeast Asia. I have many years of working experience as a journalist in the auto industry.
The Double Coin Jiangsu factory recently applied to the local environmental protection department to expand its OTR tyre production capacity. The Jiangsu factory is a joint venture established in January 2024. The company can produce 2.9 million all-steel radial (truck) tyres and 74,000 OTR tyres annually.
China’s tyre exports continued to grow in May 2023. During the month, the country’s manufacturers exported 53.82 million new pneumatic rubber tyres, 10.3 per cent more than in May 2022. The value of these tyres rose 16.6 per cent year-on-year, to approximately RMB 12.8 billion (£1.4 billion).
On 12 June, Haian Rubber Group (Haian Group)’s application for an initial public offering (IPO) on Shenzhen Stock Exchange was accepted, according to official filings.
Taiwanese tyre manufacturer Cheng Shin Rubber has re-elected its board of directors. Chen Yun-Hwa continues as chairman of the tyre maker and Lo Tsai-Jen succedes Chen Shiu-Hsiung as vice chairman. Other members of the board of directors include Chen Shiu-Hsiung, Tseng Sung-Chu, Lee Chin-Chang, Lo Yuan-Long, Chen Han-Chi and Wu Hsuan-Miao. In addition, Lo Tsai-Jen’s son Lo Yuan-Long succeeded Huang Chung-Jen as the new director. Tseng, Sung-Ling’s directorship was replaced by his cousin Tseng Sung-Chu.
At the end of May, Sentury published details relating to the development of its overseas factories. The tyremaker said data for April and May 2023 showed that its production capacity was temporarily unable to meet orders. Therefore, the company believes there is an urgent need to increase production capacity in order to meet customer demand. According to Sentury’s statement, the overseas tyre traders and retailers they cooperate with include Discount Tire, OAK Tyres, Inter-Sprint, American Omni and Turbo Wholesale.
Recently, two vice presidents of Sailun, Zhou Tianming and Zhu Xiaobing, resigned from their positions due to work adjustments. The two will continue to hold other jobs in Sailun. On 12 June, Sailun held a board meeting and appointed Zhang Xiaojun and Sun Guangqing as vice presidents.
On 13 June, Qingdao-based tyre manufacturer Sentury announced that it had supplied products to Nokian Tyres in the first quarter of 2023. Writing in a stock exchange filing, Sentury representatives specified that the company has delivered Nokian-branded winter tyres. Sentury said that “the supply will continue in the second quarter” and the current cooperation with Nokian is “good”.
Michelins plans to invest 200 million yuan (including 7.515 million yuan in environmental protection investment) to expand car tyre production capacity at its Shenyang, China factory by 1.3 million tyres. Tyrepress China learned that this project would expand the production capacity of passenger car tyres on the dismantled truck and bus tyre production line. In other words, the expansion plans won’t add workshop area. Rather, new production equipment will be installed in the original workshop to realise the increase.
On June 9, the 2023 Auto-Tyre Cross-border Development Summit Forum was held in Beijing. The theme of this forum is “Looking forward, responding to changes”. Representatives attending the meeting came from automobile manufacturers such as Chery, Great Wall Motor (GWM) and BAIC and tyre manufacturers such as Michelin, Maxxis, Triangle and Giti.
Recently, the tyre manufacturer Qingdao Doublestar received the “Commitment on Delaying the Resolution of Horizontal Competition” from the controlling shareholder Doublestar Group. Doublestar Group stated that “it is not yet ripe for solving horizontal competition through asset injection, which is not conducive to the rights and interests of Qingdao Doublestar, and there is great uncertainty”. It is reported that Doublestar Group has decided to extend the fulfilment period of the original commitment for three years to July 5, 2026. Tyrepress China learned that the Doublestar Group also mentioned that it is “looking for other solutions that are more conducive to solving horizontal competition and can promote the development of Qingdao Doublestar”.
Taiwanese tyre manufacturer Hwa Fong Rubber has sold the land and facilities of its subsidiary Hwa Fong Rubber (Suzhou), located in Changshu City, Jiangsu Province, China, to Changshu Economic Development Zone Construction Development Co., Ltd. for 276 million yuan, reports Tyrepress China. The company said the deal could help it save management costs, revitalise assets and enrich working capital. The total size of the land sold is 184,222 square meters, while the facilities cover 110,786.45 square meters. Hwa Fong Rubber will carry out relocation work in the future.
In 1983, Zhang Shulin, Huasheng Rubber’s founder, began producing agricultural machinery springs, sealing rings and motorcycle rubber pedals in his six bungalows. 40 years later, this family workshop evolved into a large tyre company with five factories and over 7,000 employees. In the list of the top 100 companies released by the China Rubber Industry Association in 2023, Huasheng Rubber ranked 16th among tyre manufacturers with a revenue of 5.17 billion yuan (international brands, including Michelin, in this ranking, only count China company performance). We were curious about how this company survived the highly competitive Chinese tyre industry and realised the “Huasheng Dream” step by step. With this question in mind, Tyrepress China interviewed Zhang Jing, deputy general manager of Huasheng Rubber, during the 2023 Guangrao Tyre exhibition.
The 2023 Guangrao tyre exhibition came to an end on May 17, bringing to an end its first live show – held “offline” – since 2019. Tyrepress attended the three-day 2023 exhibition, and noted similarities with the past but also some changes in exhibitors and visitors to the show. This article was originally posted in Chinese on our sister website, Tyrepress China. A few years ago, the tyre industry in Guangrao underwent integration and reorganisation due to many factors. After undergoing multiple rounds of reshuffling, the local tyre industry has achieved industrial upgrading. At the 2023 Guangrao tyre exhibition, Huasheng, Zhongyi, Jinyu, Hengfeng, Fangxing, Yongsheng and other well-known local tyre companies have booths.
At the 2023 Guangrao tyre exhibition, Huasheng Rubber held a press conference and released a variety of electric vehicle tyres. Tyrepress China learned at the press conference that the new electric vehicle tyres released by the tyre manufacturer cover PCR and TBR. Passenger car tyres include three products: ultra-quiet series, self-repairing series and colourful customised series. The ultra-quiet series products use new polyurethane foam mute cotton material with an excellent silent effect. Compared with ordinary products on the market, the noise of this product is reduced by 6-10 decibels. Self-repairing series products can maintain stable performance between minus 35 and 120 degrees Celsius. Colourful customised series tyres are designed to meet the market’s demand for trends.
On May 17, 2023, the three-day 13th China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire & Auto Accessory Exhibition (ChinaGRTAE 2023) ended, with Chinese language Tyrepress sister site, Tyrepress China in attendance. An organiser press conference on the last day of the show claimed that ChinaGRTAE 2023 had “achieved outstanding results”. According to preliminary statistics, more than 830 trade intentions, agreements, and contracts were reached on May 15th and 16th, exceeding 21.9 billion yuan. One special event hosted by the exhibition achieved more than 330 “one-to-one” negotiations, reaching an intention amount of 2.3 billion yuan.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
