PINGDU, China (Aug. 22, 2006) — Amerityre Corp. has licensed China's Qingdao Qizhou Rubber Co. Ltd. to make polyurethane elastomer retreads for three large-size mining tires.
Qingdao Qizhou will pay Amerityre a $400,000 license fee over two years, and Amerityre has agreed to sell or help the Chinese firm obtain the necessary manufacturing equipment as well as supplying the necessary chemicals.
Qingdao Qizhou plans to build a factory at its headquarters in Pingdu in the next year, Ameritye said.
It expects the factory to have annual capacity of between 7,200 and 10,000 units, using between 7.7 million and 16.5 million pounds of polyurethane elastomer.
“The increasing demand for natural resources by emerging countries has caused a global shortage of large OTR (off-the-road) mining tires,'' Amerityre President Ken Johnsen said.
''There have been reports of mining equipment sitting idle, without tires.
''We've been evaluating the scalability of our retreading technology in the OTR tire area and there is a substantial opportunity there. We believe our polyurethane retreading process can provide an economical and superior retreading solution.”
Qingdao Qizhou manufactures and exports agricultural, truck and OTR tires under the brand names Gold Wheel and Broadway.