QINGDAO, China — Commercial tire dealers in the U.S. have a new import brand to consider, DPlus, built by Danang Rubber J.S.C. in Vietnam and distributed in North America by Megalith Industrial Group Co. Ltd., a Chinese distribution company.
Orders for the new truck/bus tire brand, available in both radial and bias-ply versions, are by container-load only, Megalith said.
The DPlus brand, which is owned by Danang Rubber (DRC), is in addition to the firm's DRC brand, which has been imported and distributed in the U.S. by SonnyBosco Inc. of Long Beach, Calif., since 2016.
Qingdao-based Megalith Group describes itself as a professional tire enterprise, specializing in the design, manufacture and sale of tires. The firm offers a wide range of products, covering passenger, truck/bus and OTR,
The company has a dedicated web site, dplustire.com, for the brand, which shows over 40 SKUs of radial truck/bus tires and 15 bias-ply truck tires available.
In business since 1975, DRC is one of two Vietnamese-run tire makers in Vietnam and is considered the No. 68 tire maker worldwide, with fiscal 2021 sales of $192 million.
Besides DPlus, Megalith offers its proprietary Lexmont brand in certain markets, along with a range of other manufacturer brands that it represents in various markets.
Vietnam is the No. 2 source of imported truck/bus tires into the U.S., according to U.S. Census Department data, with 3.07 million units shipped to the U.S. in 2022.
This is the second new business activity for Danang Rubber in the U.S. this year.
Earlier, Tin Thanh Group, a Vietnamese energy company, told Tire Business it plans to import DRC-branded medium truck tires into the U.S. as the foundation for a commercial tire-leasing program it's setting up in South Carolina.
That venture, Tin Thanh Group Americas, also plans to set up a truck tire retreading plant and at the same site, in Franklin, S.C., near the Georgia border.
