ZHAOYUAN, China — Linglong Tire has unveiled plans to build a tire factory in the central China province of Shaanxi, its sixth in China, for radial truck tires and retreads.
Linglong — China's No. 2 tire maker and 14th largest worldwide according to Tire Business' annual Global Top 75 ranking — has budgeted $945 million over six years for the plant, which will have an annual rated capacity of 15.2 million "semi-steel and all-steel" radial tires and 500,000 retreaded tires.
The move is part of the company's global expansion strategy, which it revised recently to a "7+5" format — seven plants in China and five globally --- from the "6+6" strategy it had been pursuing the past few years.
Linglong said it expects to begin construction on the new plant by April 2022 and complete the project in three phases by March 2028.
The plant will be located in the Dongjiahe Circular Economy Industrial Park, Tongchuan City.
Once fully operational, the factory will have capacities for 12 million semi-steel radial tires and 3 million all-steel radial tires per year, plus 100,000 aircraft tires (including 60,000 retreaded tires), 100,000 specialty tires, 500,000 retreaded car tires and 1 million inner tubes and pads.
According Linglong, Tongchuan City was selected for the location of the plant due to "complete regional infrastructure" and proximity to car makers and auto parts manufacturers.
The new plant will be Linglong's sixth domestic production facility, in addition to the ones in Zhaoyuan, Dezhou, Liuzhou, Jingmen, and a fifth which is being constructed in Changchun City, in northeastern China.
The company also operates an overseas plant in Thailand and is building a car, truck and OTR tire plant in Serbia, for which it budgeted nearly $1 billion.
As for the revamped strategy, Linglong said its board of directors had agreed to change the strategy due to the "unstable and uncertain" economic situation tied to the repeated surge of COVID-19 overseas as well as China's focus on "accelerating the domestic construction."
The decision, according to the company, is part of a 10-year medium-to-long-term development plan through to 2030.
