First giant tire rolls off new line at Aeolus plant

Henan, China – China’s Aeolus Tyre has marked a milestone in its giant tire production expansion project, with the first engineering radial tire rolled off the production line last month.

The 45/65R45 AL516 is the first tire in its giant loader series, intended for 20-tonne loaders and suited for 100-130 tonne mining dump trucks, said Aeolus in an 18 Sept statement.

According to Aeolus, the product features a reinforced bead structure, sidewall support, and an ‘ultra cut-resistant’ tread compound engineered for impact protection and extended service life.

The Chinese tire maker described the expansion project at the Jiaozuo City industrial park as central to its strategy as a “global leader in industrial tire quality.”

The project, it said, involves intelligent transformation of giant tire R&D and production to boost efficiency, process precision, and product stability in the OTR segment.

As previously disclosed, the project will add production capacity for 20,000 units per year of giant OTR tires at the upgraded facility.

According to an environmental impact report from April last year, the Aeolus site currently has capacity to produce 130,000 all-steel OTR tires and 1.2 million all-steel radial truck tires annually.

However, Aeolus is now completing an earlier project to convert the lines to focus on giant engineering tires, expanding capacity by just under 111,000 units per year and eliminating capacity for 1 million TBR tires.

With a two-year completion window, the projects will eventually enable production of 260,930 all-steel OTR tires and 200,000 all-steel load-carrying truck and bus tires per year.