SIHANOUK, Cambodia — China's Jiangsu General Science Technology Co. Ltd. (JGST) has started trial production at the passenger and truck tire plant in southwest Cambodia roughly 15 months after breaking ground on the project.
Commercial-scale production at the $300 million facility in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone is expected to start in April, according to a March 15 statement from the Sihanouk Province governor's office.
The plant is rated at 5 million passenger tires and 900,000 truck/bus tires, JGST said. At full capacity, the plant will require 1,600 workers.
Wuxi, China-based JGST — represented in North America by Statewide Tires Inc. of West Covina, Calif. — set up a new company, General Rubber (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., to oversee construction of the factory, located in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ), in southwest Cambodia.
In the first phase, the plant will have capacity to produce 3 million passenger tires and 500,000 truck/bus tires, according to the governor's office.
Tires manufactured at the facility, it said, will be exported primarily to the U.S., Europe and Brazil. In North America it goes to market using the TBB brand.
JGST is considered the 46th largest tire maker worldwide, according to Tire Business calculations, based on fiscal 2021 sales of $672 million.
