On 9 August, Shen Jinrong, chairman of ZC Rubber, went to the factory in Thailand to inspect the work, and discussed with the senior executives of the Thailand factory on increasing production and reducing costs.
Recently, Hankook stated that it would carry out technical transformation on the TBR production line of the Chongqing factory. Specifically, the tyre manufacturer plans to invest 47 million yuan (about £5.1 million; €5.9 million) to increase the daily production capacity of TBR from 2,560 to 2,960 (annual production capacity from 900,000 to 1.036 million) within 16 months. Hankook says the project will not add new land and will be built in its existing factory workshop.
18 years after MG Rover collapsed and was bought by SAIC (Shanghai Industry Automotive Corporation) and 7 years after the carmaker moved MG production to China in 2016, SAIC is planning to build a new car factory in Europe. The location has not yet been finalised and details of which brands will be made there are scant, but as the European car parc transitions to electric vehicles, it appears that the production history of the MG Rover is going full circle.
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.
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.
Fast-growing tyre wholesaler, GB Tyres, has begun construction of its new Oldbury tyre “storage and distribution facility”. As we reported back in September 2022, despite existing storage space of roughly 250,000 square feet across two large sites in the midlands the business requires much more space.
Nexen Tire is considering eight southeastern US states as the possible location for a new $1.3-billion tyre factory project. According to stock market filing published on 18 May, Nexen is set to make a decision on the project by the end of 2023, with a view to getting the factory operational by 2028-2029.
Nokian Tyres has initiated work on its Oradea, Romania passenger car tyre factory, billed as the tyre industry’s first zero CO2 emission plant. An event marking the groundbreaking was attended by the Prime Minister of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă. The President of the Bihor County Council, Ilie Bolojan, and other high-level Romanian and Finnish officials also participated along with the chair of Nokian Tyres’s board of directors Jukka Hienonen. The first tyres are estimated to be produced in the second half of 2024. Commercial tyre production is expected to start in early 2025.
Nokian Tyres’s well-publicised exit from Russia has left it with a similarly well-reported production gap that continues to impact the company’s ongoing business. Speaking as part of the company’s first quarter 2023 results presentation, Nokian Tyres executives emphasised that “new capacity is our #1 priority” and shared further details of how they are planning to fill the firm’s production gap. We already knew that Nokian plans to expand its existing factories in Nokia, Finland and Dayton, USA as well as build a new factory in Romania and make off-take contracts with third-party manufacturers, what’s new is the detail and time frames associated with “building the new Nokian Tyres”.
In late March 2023 Lodge Tyre’s Manchester operation opened new “bigger and better” premises. The “extensively refurbished” location in Mode Wheel Road South, Salford, Greater Manchester boasts over 7,500 square feet of internal space plus an extensive commercial vehicle servicing area.
Alongside an exclusive tour of Linglong Tire’s new European production base in Serbia, Tyres & Accessories sat down with chairman Wang Feng in a conversation that covered topics including the company’s plans for its latest factory in Serbia, the location of its next manufacturing investment and the fast-growing tyre manufacturer’s strategic goals.
LD Carbon is on the brink of closing a 10-year tyre pyrolysis oil contract with a South Korean oil firm. Tyres & Accessories understands that the 10-year deal will be worth around $25 million a year, making the whole contract worth around $250 million.
Linglong Tire will build its next tyre factory in the Americas region. Tyres & Accessories learnt the news during a recent interview with Linglong Tire chairman Wang Feng, which took place alongside an exclusive tour of the company’s new European tyre production facility in Serbia.
Yokohama has announced plans to add 100,000 tyres-worth of production capacity to its existing factory in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
VMI is celebrating the opening of three new assembly halls at its manufacturing site in Leszno, Poland. This brings VMI’s total available floor space in Poland to almost 30,000 square meters. The expansion of the VMI operation, which is part of technology company TKH, follows a number of years of strong growth in VMI’s core tyre and pharmaceutical business.
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Hankook
Valokuvaaja/Nokian Tyres
Lodge Tyres; Absolute Group
Linglong
Yokohama
VMI