Sailun unveils plans for €330m 'liquid gold' materials project

Shanghai, China – Chinese tire maker Sailun Group has unveiled a major project to produce functional new materials that will improve the efficiency of tire production within the group.

Sailun has earmarked Yuan 2.3 billion (€334 million) for the Qingdao Dongjiakou materials project, which will have the capacity to produce 500 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of functional new materials once fully on stream.

In the first phase, the project will manufacture 200ktpa of new materials, which will be based on "liquid gold" rubber produced through liquid phase mixing process, said Sailun in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange 27 June.

The new plant will be constructed at the Dongjiakou Chemical Industry Park, west coast new district, Qingdao, and is expected to take 36 months to complete.

The first phase, with the budget of Yuan1.1 billion is expected to be completed in 18 months.

As part of the project, Sailun will set up a new wholly-owned subsidiary named Qingdao Sailun New Materials which will carry out R&D, promotion of new material technology, as well as production and sales of new materials based on wet-mixed rubber.

Sailun has previously announced that tires made from the "liquid gold" material developed by the company can be adapted to new energy vehicles, and have greatly improved wet grip, rolling resistance and wear resistance. 

The announcement of the new materials investment came at the same time as Sailun unveiled a €2 billion project to ultimately produce 30 million units of tire, also in Dongjiakou.

Sailun ranked 17th in ERJ's Global Tire Ranking 2021 with sales of $2.0 billion during the year.