Zhongce Rubber reports higher first-half results as overseas markets grow

Hangzhou, China – Zhongce Rubber Group (ZC Rubber) has reported year-on-year growth in sales and profits in the first half of 2026, helped by overseas capacity expansion and continued order demand.

Operating revenue for the first six months of the year grew 7.41% year-on-year to Yuan23.5 billion (€3 billion) as net profit attributable to shareholders, excluding non-recurring items, increased 5.8% to Yuan2.4 billion, ZC reported 17 Aug.

For the period under review, the group said it faced “multiple challenges such as dramatic fluctuations in raw-material prices and relatively intense industry competition.”

ZC Rubber said it relied on the advantages of its “full tire portfolio, full-market coverage and globalised manufacturing and operations,” to achieve gains.

“Overseas capacity expansion accelerated, order demand remained good, and the company continued to achieve further growth in production and sales.”

The Chinese tire maker said both domestic and overseas markets recorded further revenue growth during the period, demonstrating 'resilience amid a challenging market environment.'

Commenting on its overseas expansion, ZC Rubber said its Thai production plant produced 9.73 million semi-steel passenger car tires in the first half, an increase of 38% year-on-year. (ERJ report)

The group’s Indonesian unit produced 1.27 million all-steel truck tires, up 249%, with PCR production having also begun at the facility. (ERJ report)

Overseas revenue accounted for 48% of total revenue at the end of the reporting period, according to the ZC Rubber's first-half results.

Another key driver of growth, ZC Rubber said, was technology capabilities which helped it remain among the leading levels in China's tire industry.

A project jointly completed by ZC Rubber and Harbin Institute of Technology, “key technologies and green intelligent manufacturing of high-performance tires”, received the second prize in the 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award.

ZC Rubber said the project was the only tire-industry project to receive an award at this level during the past decade. (ERJ report)

The group also said it had continued to integrate artificial intelligence across its manufacturing and operating processes.

This, it said, covered product design, intelligent simulation and commissioning, production-line inspection, unmanned material handling and operational management.

In the green-manufacturing field, ZC Rubber said it was expanding the use of renewable energy, including photovoltaic power generation and biomass energy.

Furthermore, independently developed “10,000-tonne-level waste tire green self-recycling and regeneration technology” has addressed waste-tire solid-waste treatment challenges, said ZC Rubber.

The process, it said, is a “replicable and scalable technology route” for the industry's low-carbon development.