ZRENJANIN, Serbia — China's Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd. is pursuing plans to establish a third overseas facility, with a location in Mexico among the options being explored.
That was among the key messages to emerge from a Sept. 13 ceremony held at the company's two-year-old tire factory in Zrenjanin, in northern Serbia, to mark the launch of commercial-scale production at the plant, Linglong's second outside of China.
At the event, Linglong Chairman Wang Feng highlighted the importance of partnerships with materials, equipment and technology suppliers in enabling Linglong to meet its ambitious goals.
Over many years, he said, "We have jointly navigated through ever-changing market landscape from a foundation based on mutual trust."
By taking innovation "under our wings we are constantly overcoming countless obstacles [and achieving] mutual success, one after another.
"We are confident that, as long as we maintain our original ambition and persist in innovation, nothing can hinder our forward momentum."
In line with the firm's stated goal to achieve annual production of 160 million tires and sales of over $11 billion, Weng said Linglong is evaluating its options for a third plant outside of China.
Establishing production capacity in North America would appear a logical next step in Linglong's ambitious "7+5" strategy to establish a global network of seven plants in China and five overseas units by 2030.
Linglong recently announced plans to invest $640 million in the Zrenjanin plant through 2030 to add capacity there for the manufacture of 1.1 million radial truck/bus, agricultural and off-highway tires.
The Serbian plant has a nameplate annual capacity of 12 million passenger tires, 2.4 million commercial-vehicle tires, 220,000 off-road tires and 100,000 retreaded tires.
Linglong's other offshore plant is in Chonburi, Thailand, which opened in 2013 with annual capacity of 13 million-plus car and truck/bus tires.
The company operates five plants in China – at Zhaoyuan, Dezhou, Liuzhou, Jingmen, Changchun – and has announced plans for facilities in Tongchuan and Lu'an City.
The company reported annual revenue of $2.8 billion last year, good for 17th among the world's largest tire makers. Achieving annual revenue of $11 billion or more would elevate the company potentially to a Top 7 or 8 tire maker by 2030, depending on the scale of growth that companies now ranked in the Top 10 might generate by then.
