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.
Qingdao Doublestar’s 2022 annual report shows stable revenues and growing losses. While operating income amounted to 3.91 billion yuan (£460 million), an amount fundamentally unchanged from the previous year, the bottom line net loss attributable to shareholders grew 87.93% year-on-year to 601.9 million yuan (£70.82 million).
Recently, Prinx Chengshan revealed in its 2022 annual report that it has decided to suspend its Anhui tyre factory project. The tyre maker said that the suspension of investment was due to the domestic and foreign economic situation and the company’s forecast analysis of capacity utilisation. According to the original plan of Prinx Chengshan, the Anhui factory is its second tyre factory in China.
On 30 March, Giti began construction of its new tyre factory in Anhui Province, China. The specific location of the project is Changfeng County, Hefei, Anhui. On the 31st, Yu Aihua, secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee, went to the construction site to investigate and stressed that it would be completed and put into operation within 12 months.
Aeolus’s first batch of 63-inch OTR tyres was shipped from the company’s Jiaozuo manufacturing base on 11 March. The specification model of this batch of tyres is 59/80R63. Aeolus said that these giant tyres were sent to key overseas markets. The manufacturer said that a giant tyre weighs nearly 6 tons with a diameter for more than 4 metres and is mainly used for mining dump trucks, around 400 tons.
On 15 March, the government authorities in Xiuwen County, where Guizhou Tyre (also known as Advance Tyre) is located, fined the tyre manufacturer 500,000 yuan (about £59,000; €67,000). Tyrepress China has found that the punishment was related to a production safety accident half a year ago. On 30 August 2022, a mechanical injury accident occurred in Guizhou Tyre Rubber Compounding Branch, resulting in the death of one person.
On 17 March, Xingda Steel Tyre Cord held a ceremony celebrating the commencement of production at the second phase project of the company’s Shandong factory. Liu Tao and Hang Youming, deputy general managers of the steel tyre cord manufacturer, attended the event. In his speech, Liu Tao revealed that the Shandong factory’s second phase mainly serves tyre companies in Shandong Province and northern China.
On 18 March Jiangsu General’s Cambodian factory produced its first tyre, which means the tyre maker’s second overseas factory is now ramping up its production capacity. Jiangsu General said that the products of the Cambodian plant are mainly produced under the Celimo brand and are sold in the United States, Europe and Brazil.
On 14 March, Federal Tire said it would hold a general shareholder meeting in three months. Tyrepress China found that the tyre manufacturer will issue a “Report on losses up to half of the paid-in capital” at the general meeting of shareholders. Federal explains that “the accumulated losses of the company in 2022…reached one-half of paid-in capital”. This document shows that the Federal business situation in 2022 seems to have fallen into a trough.
On 3 March, Sentury purchased 20 hectares of land for the company’s Morocco tyre factory project. Lin Wenlong, general manager of the tyre manufacturer, formally signed a land purchase agreement with the company in charge of the Tangier Tech City project. According to various reports, Sentury will use this piece of land located in Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City to build a factory in Morocco. The project is scheduled to start construction in July 2023 ahead of an 18-month construction period.
On 9 March, Cho Hyun-bum, chairman of Hankook Tire, was arrested. The charges against him include illicit inter-affiliate trading, embezzlement and breach of trust. According to Yonhap News Agency, the amount involved in Cho Hyun-bum’s embezzlement and breach of trust may exceed 20 billion won (about £12.7 million; €14.3 million). It is reported that the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Cho Hyun-bum in order to safeguard evidence after a court hearing on 8 March.
On 2 March 2023 the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong Province stated that it agreed to Zhucheng Yong’an Rubber Technology (Yong’an Rubber) to undergo a “capacity replacement” at its tyre production facility. The company in Zhucheng, Weifang, plans to dismantle the production capacity of 300,000 all-steel radial tyres and 5.46 million semi-steel radial tyres and launch a project with an annual output of 70,100 tons of OTR tyres. The Chinese government calls this behaviour “capacity replacement”, meaning that a company must withdraw its equivalent production capacity if it wants to build a new project. Tyrepress’ sister website, Tyrepress China notes that Yong’an Rubber had undergone bankruptcy and reorganisation in 2020-21, having been acquired by Sailun.
On 6 March, the authorities of Hefei City, Anhui Province, released reported that they they had reached a consensus with Giti headquarters on relocating the Hefei factory. The chairman of Giti Tire will go to Hefei soon to inspect the address of the new factory.
Zodo Tire recently acquired Kaixuan Rubber. An employee of Zodo Tire confirmed the acquisition to Tyrepress China but did not disclose the specific amount of the transaction.
On 24 February, Federal signed an off-take agreement with Vietnam XT Tyre. According to the agreement between the two parties, XT Tyre will start to produce tyres for Federal in 2023 by Federal’s orders and production specifications. Federal did not disclose the details of the cooperation with XT Tyre, including the specifications and production capacity involved in the making the agreed products and the specific timetable for the collaboration between the two parties.
On 20 February 2023, Michelin held the opening ceremony for its new China headquarters office building in Shanghai. Joan Valadou, Consul General of France in Shanghai, Ye Fei, President of Michelin China, and others attended the event. The new headquarters of Michelin China is located in Changning District, started construction in September 2022 and was completed in January 2023.
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