China’s Tianxi breaks ground on truck & bus tire plant

Huludao, Liaoning – Tianxi Tire broke ground on its heavy duty truck and bus tire plant with 1.2 million unit annual capacity in March.

The project is slated to come on stream in April 2020, the company told ERJ.

According to China’s Tire Industry Policy effective since 2010, any newly built or expansion projects for heavy duty radial tires should have at least 1.2 million unit annual capacity.

Located at Huludao’s Xingcheng Binhai Economic Zone, the new plant has 168,000-square-metre total area with €185 million (1.4 billion yuan) investment earmarked.

It will generate €206 million of annual sales and create 632 jobs when in operation, said the project’s environmental impact report.

About 40% of the project’s capacity is for self-healing tires using Tianxi’s own-technology automatic spray coater, said the report.

Tianxi Tire was set up in Huludao in July 2018. Chairman and controlling shareholder Chen Hongshan is a rubber sector veteran and has worked with a number of companies in the province.