ZC Rubber reports two-digit rise in production in first half

Hangzhou, China – ZC Rubber released its production results over the first half of 2017 at its mid-year distributor meeting in July, reporting a 20% rise in radial tire production year on year to 25 million units.

This includes 8.4 million unit truck and bus tires, up 24% compared with H1 2016, according to a statement on the company’s website.

Such growth rates are higher than the industry average in China, against market headwinds such as drastic fluctuation in raw material prices and the country’s changing demand, said ZC’s chairman Shen Jinrong at the event.

Sales of heavy duty tire during the period jumped 176% to 1.4 million units, showing great potential for the company’s commercial vehicle original equipment business, said the sales arm’s general manager Chen Shi. Replacement sales volume rose by 14%.

ZC also adopted Alibaba’s cloud computing technology at the end of 2016 to analyze the parameters of each rubber piece and boost the performance of rubber compound. Such technology can help ZC reduce rubber compound’s defective rate by up to 5%, said the statement.