Aeolus giant tire project nears completion

Jiaozuo City, China – Aeolus Tire’s 20,000-unit giant engineering radial tire capacity expansion project is nearing completion, with initial completion expected in the second half of 2026.

In a 28 Aug stock exchange filing, the Chinese group said the project, which officially started construction in May last year, has an overall construction period of 24 months, with production capacity to be released steadily.

The Yuan1.4 billion (€180 million) upgrade and efficiency project is based at Aeolus’s existing facility in Jiaozuo, Henan province, to the east of China.

The group is also carrying out another upgrade project to convert the existing capacity of 130,000 all-steel OTR tires and 1.2 million all-steel radial truck tires per year. (ERJ report)

Once completed, that project will convert the lines to focus on giant engineering tires, expanding capacity by just under 111,000 OTR units per year and eliminating capacity for 1 million TBR tires.

With a two-year completion window, the two 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.

Meanwhile, Aeolus said it was moving ahead with a major expansion of its overseas production footprint through Egypt, which was announced in May (ERJ report).

Once fully operational, the project is expected to provide annual production capacity of 1.5 million truck and bus tires, 30,000 engineering radial tires and 30,000 agricultural radial tires.

Aeolus said the establishment of a local production base in Egypt would allow it to "effectively avoid European and US trade barriers" while leveraging the location advantages of the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

It will also "deepen business synergies with Prometeon Tyre Group" and address shortcomings in the group's overseas production capacity.

On technology, Aeolus reported a sharp increase in intellectual property achievements during the first half of 2026.

The group obtained 56 patent authorisations during the period, up 143.48% year on year, which it said demonstrated a "significant rise in R&D activity".

Research into giant-tire technology continued to focus on low-heat-generation compounds, high-heat-dissipation structural design and cut-resistant compounds.

The group said it was also deepening research into materials and sustainability, with continued progress in the application of renewable, bio-based and recycled materials.

In the domestic market, Aeolus said it had pursued "refined market expansion", focusing on major customers and increasing the value of existing customers.

The group reported progress in winning fitments in the public transportation system, "leading logistics fleets" and OEM supply sectors, while domestic market share in engineering tires increased steadily.