Now one of the largest tyre-producing countries in the world, China has an indisputable influence on the direction of global tyre trade. The home of both fast-growing up-and-coming brands as well as a burgeoning domestic market, this tag chronicles China’s involvement with the tyre business.
According to officials in China, tyre export volumes increased slightly year-on-year in November 2024. However, the rate of growth slowed significantly compared to October, with export volumes declining slightly month-on-month.
According to a news release from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), Chea Vuthy, chairman of the Cambodian Investment Board under the agency, inspected the construction progress of Zodo Tyre on the afternoon of 14 December 2024.
The World Brand Lab has announced the 2024 “Top Ten Influential Chinese Tyre Brands”, which are ranked as Doublestar, Sailun, Linglong, Chaoyang (belonging to ZC Rubber), Double Coin, Celmo (belonging to Jiangsu General), Advance Tyre (belonging to Guizhou Tyre), Triangle, Cheng Shin, and Prinx Chengshan.
According to Yokohama Rubber, the groundbreaking ceremony held for its new Hangzhou Qiantang Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd. plant in China last Monday marks the start of construction of the first plant it is building under the ‘1-year plant’ challenge, the company’s strategy for growing its consumer tyre business. The aim of the 1-year plant challenge is to quickly construct efficient, low-cost manufacturing facilities to gain a “strong competitive position” within local markets, synergising Yokohama Rubber’s own experience with that of local partners.
On 25 October, “2024 Member Assembly of China Rubber Industry Association’s Rubber Machinery and Mold Branch and Industry Development Seminar” was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. The theme of the conference was “Innovation Leads to Prosperity – Promoting High-Quality Development and Building a Sustainable Future.” More than 150 industry experts and corporate representatives from tyre, rubber machinery, tyre moulds, and supporting enterprises attended the event to discuss the “hot issues of concern” in the current rubber industry and its development trends”. The conference was “co-hosted by the Rubber Machinery and Mold Branch of the China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) and Mesnac Co., Ltd.
Yesterday morning, Yokohama Rubber held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Hangzhou Qiantang Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd plant in China. Yokohama Rubber intends for the factory to begin operations in 2026 with an initial production capacity of 9 million passenger car tyres a year, a quantity that will deliver estimated annual revenues of RMB 3.5 billion (£379.6 million). The factory’s planned final yearly capacity is 14 million tyres.
Sailun Group Co., Ltd. has authorised a foreign exchange hedging programme to mitigate risks from currency fluctuations affecting its operations, particularly those related to US dollar and euro denominated transactions. The programme, approved by the company’s Board of Directors on 13 December and confirmed by its Supervisory Board, allows for transactions up to RMB 6 billion (£653.1 million) or its equivalent in foreign currencies between 1 January and 31 December 2025.
Sailun Group is introducing a mechanism outlining its approach to profit distribution, which balances the need for long-term development with that of delivering reasonable returns for shareholders. Specifically, the new Sailun Group Co., Ltd. Shareholder Return Plan (2025-2027) aims to encourage long-term investment and sustainable growth, provide stable returns to investors, align the company’s activities with regulatory requirements, and enhance decision-making and policy stability.
Cofo is building a manufacturing base in Vietnam with an annual output of 160,000 all-steel radial tyres and 800,000 semi-steel radial tyres. Li Shengfa, the company’s head, revealed in an interview with local media that “choosing to build a factory overseas will improve the supply of domestic and foreign markets to a certain extent, and will also help to absorb advanced technology and experience, to better develop and adapt to overseas markets”.
In addition to increasing production capacity at its Wuxi passenger car tyre plant in China, Bridgestone Corporation has completed the second phase of its project to equip the Bridgestone (Wuxi) Tyre Co., Ltd. facility for generating solar power. Bridgestone has installed further rooftop panels which, since going operational in mid-November 2024, have increased the plant’s solar panel capacity to 13.029 megawatts (MW).
Hongsheng Rubber reports that overseas orders increased significantly in 2024, with a 20% increase in the first half of the year. And moving forward, the company’s production capacity has been scheduled until March 2025, according to an interview with local media in Guangrao.
Automechanika Shanghai 2024 opened its doors on 2 December with a record-breaking 6,763 exhibitors, an increase of 20 per cent compared to last year’s event, including 17 overseas country and region pavilions. The fair will run until 5 December, covering over 350,000 square metres and 14 halls of the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai).
After Xiong Shunmin resigned, Triangle’s board of directors elected Gu Zhifu as a new member of the Strategic Development Committee.
Major tyre industry player Sinochem Holdings claims a superlative with Guilin Lanyu Aviation Tyre Development Co., Ltd., announcing that its subsidiary began operation as China’s first major civil aircraft tyre production line on 23 November 2024. Sinochem may need to further elucidate its use of the word ‘first,’ however, as Sentury Tire has been talking about producing aircraft tyres for civil applications for some time now. Semantics aside, Sinochem shares in a statement that the Guilin Lanyu plant in southern China has a capacity to produce 100,000 civil aircraft tyres annually, a quantity sufficient to meet 40 per cent of the country’s current demand for these products.
Triangle’s third-quarter report shows its net profit from July to September fell sharply. In the third quarter of 2024, Triangle’s revenue was 2.61 billion yuan (about £290 million; €340 million), a year-on-year decline of 2.49 per cent; the tyre manufacturer’s net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 270 million yuan (about £30 million; €35 million), a decline of 39.59 per cent.
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