On 17 March, Linglong Tire announced that it hired Yu Hang as its vice president. The tyre manufacturer stated that the appointment of Yu Hang is to enhance Linglong’s brand value and competitiveness, optimise and improve its “product + service + value” system, build a world-class brand influence, and enhance Linglong’s international competitiveness.
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.
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.
At the end of January, three Chinese tyre companies released their 2022 performance forecasts, which show that Aeolus and Linglong are in profit, but reveal huge losses at Doublestar.
In 2022, several significant events took place in China’s tyre industry. These things had a profound impact on the tyre industry not only in 2022, but for a long time.
On 30 December Linglong announced that it would adjust the construction of its seventh production base in China. The construction location of the project was changed from Lujiang, Anhui, to Lu’an, Anhui. At the same time, the tyre manufacturer’s Lu’an factory is preparing to build a project with an annual output of 14 million sets of high-performance radial tyres and a project to regenerate via retreading and material recovery 30,000 tons of waste tyres. In the original design, Linglong’s seventh factory in China was intended to have an annual production capacity of 14.6 million sets of radial tyres.
Linglong Tire intends to have 35 per cent sustainable and renewable resources in its tyres by 2025 and 40 per cent by 2030. One source of such materials will be dandelions. The tyre maker established the Dandelion Rubber Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance in 2015, partnering with more than 20 universities, research institutes and rubber companies.
Recently, several tyre manufacturers have released recruitment information, which is not enough to be strong evidence that China’s tyre industry is gradually recovering. However, the recruitment information shows that some Chinese tyre companies have not hesitated in the challenging environment.
2022 has been a challenging year for the Chinese tyre industry. This year is coming to an end, but a feeling of anxiety is crossing regions and classes and spreads throughout the industry. From manufacturers to distributors, from vulcanisation workshop workers to corporate executives, many professionals are asking the question: Where is the future of China’s tyre industry?
On November 2, Linglong held a performance presentation on the operation of the third quarter of 2022. Linglong chairman Wang Feng, board secretary Sun Songtao and heads of relevant departments attended the performance presentation and interacted with investors on Linglong’s business situation.
Based on stock market reporting for the third quarter of 2022, the top nine Chinese listed tyre companies ranked by revenue are Sailun, Linglong, Triangle, Huayi (the holding company of Double Coin), Guizhou Tyre, Sentury, Aeolus, Jiangsu General, and Doublestar. (The leading Chinese tyre company according to Tyrepress global rankings is ZC Rubber (Hangzhou Zhongce), but it is not listed.) The figures show that Sailun has completed a meteoric rise this year to become the Chinese tyre industry’s stock market leader, with an income of more than 6 billion yuan in the quarter, putting it within reach of the global top 10 tyre manufacturers.
At the end of October, several listed companies, including Linglong, Triangle, Sailun, Aeolus, Jiangsu General, Guizhou Tyre (Advance), Doulestar and Sentury, released their operating results for the third quarter. In the third quarter, Linglong produced 17,015,900 tyres and sold 16,623,600 tyres, with a revenue of about 4.37 billion yuan (about 520 million pounds, 600 million euros) and a net profit of about 110 million yuan (about 13.1 million pounds, 15.22 million euros).
Recently, Linglong Tire signed a cooperation agreement with CCCC First Highway Engineering Group. CCCC First Highway Engineering Group will lead the continuing construction of the Serbian project of Linglong International Europe into the plant’s next phase. The plant produced its first tyre, an Eplus-01 truck and bus radial tyre, on 27 June. It is reported that CCCC First Highway Engineering Group’s main task is to be responsible for the current and subsequent construction projects and to promote the construction progress of Linglong’s European project. The two parties did not disclose the specific cooperation details.
June and July saw a spate of factory investment and opening announcements. First there’s the news that Linglong manufactured its first tyre at its brand-new Serbia tyre production plant at the end of June. Of course, this project has been underway for some time, but the fact that it got going just before the end of the first half of 2022 is noteworthy for two reasons. Firstly, notwithstanding the inhibiting effect of general market headwinds associated with pandemic fall-out and war in Ukraine, the project is basically on-schedule. And secondly, it demonstrates that no enthusiasm for Western and specifically European tyre production has been lost since the nullification of European import tariffs against Chinese-produced truck tyres roughly a month ago.
Linglong Tire recently answered questions from investors via the interactive platform of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The answers reveal details related to developments at the company’s Serbian factory and its Chinese aircraft tyre production plant.
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.
Prinx Chengshan
Linglong
Austin Diste; Unsplash
Linglong
Andreas Felske; Unsplash
Christian Lue; Unsplash
Linglong
Sailun
Linglong
Linglong