Hangzhou Zhongce to make entry-level passenger tyres for Cooper

From Rubber & Plastics News

Findlay, Ohio-Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will source about 1 million entry-level passenger car radials from China this year as part of its strategy to convert US capacity to higher margin performance tyres.

Cooper will source the tyres from Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. in Hangzhou, China, the same company that is taking over Cooper's medium truck radial production.

Hangzhou Zhongce will make six sizes of Cooper-, Mastercraft-, Dean- and Starfire-brand passenger tires, Cooper said, using Cooper specifications and quality standards specifically for the North American market. Tyres should be available starting in the third quarter.

“This outsourcing arrangement will help us meet our growing demand,” said Tire Group President Dick Stephens. “By outsourcing some of our broadline products, we can devote more production capacity to the more exotic performance tyres. We have increased capacity at all of our US plants and these tyres will help fill in the gap between our capacity and projected demand.”

Cooper engineers are on site in China developing the tyre and conducting audits to assure all products comply with its quality standards and exceed all governmental requirements, Cooper said.