China’s Delun breaks ground on passenger car tire project

Chuzhou, China – Delun Rubber in February broke ground on a passenger car tire project with 4 million unit annual capacity at its existing site in Chuzhou, Dingyuan.

Located at the city’s Dingyuan Economic Development Zone with 121,000 total area, the project has €155 million (1.2 billion yuan) investment earmarked.

The project is slated to come on stream in 2019 and will create 700 new jobs when in full operation, the company told ERJ.

Delun also admits that the new plant is not a highly automated “smart plant.” It’s a shift of business focus from heavy duty tires to lighter ones, said the company.

Delun currently has 1.2 million unit annual capacity for heavy duty truck and bus tires, out of 3 million unit annual capacity for such tires as originally planned.

“We are still mulling whether to pick up the [heavy duty tire] project. The decision will be based on market conditions,” the company told ERJ.