Guizhou building specialty tire plant in China

By Jane Ho, Crain News Service

GUIYANG, China (Aug. 27, 2015) — Guizhou Tyre Co. Ltd., producer of the Advance and Samson tire brands, is building a specialty tire plant complex in Xiuwen, China, where it plans to relocate production from three of its existing factories together with new capacities.

Construction started this January and the plants are expected to begin operation in 2017, the company's board secretary Li Shangwu told European Rubber Journal, a sister publication of Tire Business.

The company has earmarked $225 million for the project, which is expected to generate $40 million annual profit on $515 million  sales when in operation.

Guizhou is the 31st largest tire maker globally, as ranked by Tire Business, based on its 2014 sales of $886.9 million.

The project, on a 2.6 million-sq.-ft. site, will have an annual capacity of 3.25 million tires when completed, including capacity for 1.2 million pneumatic industrial tires, 1.1 million small agricultural tires and engineering tires, 180,000 large agricultural tires and radial tires, 270,000 large engineering tires and 500,000 solid tires, Guizhou said.

About a fourth of the project's machinery will be newly purchased, Mr. Li said, and tires produced at the new site will be targeting the mid-to-upper-scale market.

“We also have plans for several other new projects at the site for all tire types totaling 10 million sets per year capacity,” Mr. Li said. “All projects will be completed in five to six years.

Xiuwen is a rural site about 25 miles north of the firm's Guiyang, Guizhou, headquarters complex.

Guizhou Tyre was founded in Shanghai and moved to Guiyang in 1958, according to information on GTCNA.com, the website of GTC North America Inc., the tire maker's wholly owned U.S. distribution subsidiary in Canton, Ohio.

This report appeared in European Rubber Journal, a United Kingdom-based sister publication of Tire Business.