Tire Manufacturer to Build $200 Million Factory in China

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Shandong Linglong Rubber Company Limited, which owns the trademarks Linglong, Shanling and Leao, will build a $200 million rubber factory that will produce high-level car tires mainly for exportation. The 430,400-square-foot factory will be in Zhaoyuan City of Shandong Province. When the factory becomes operational in mid-2008, it will become Linglong's third workshop.

The new factory's capacity is 10 million tires a year, helping Linglong to raise its capacity to 3 million pieces a year, said Jiang Guibo, Linglong's import-export manager.

In the recent Shanghai Citexpo 2007 trade expo, Jiang said the company will increase the portion of exportation in total sales by 50%.

The factory will be built beside Linglong's two existing factories in Zhaoyuan, including a radial tire and heavy-duty tire factory and a bias-ply tire factory.

Linglong's sales reached $752 million in 2006, helping it to rank fifth among Chinese tire makers. In 2006, Linglong exported tires worth $150 million to North America, accounting for 40% of its total exportation.

Founded in 1979 as a tire repairer, and reformed to be a tire maker in 1987, Linglong has become an OEM producer for Hercules Tire & Rubber Company (Findlay, Ohio).

Linglong sells its heavy-duty tires, agricultural tires and industrial tires through Tire Masters International LLC (Miami Florida). It also sells high-level passenger car tires through ZTI Tires Incorporated (Miami Florida), as well as Leao heavy-duty tire through Milestone Tire & Rubber Company (?).

Linglong's main products include bias-ply tires, passenger car and light truck radial tires, heavy-duty radial tires, and special tires of more than 10 series and 2,000 specifications. It produces 4 million bias-ply tires, 9 million passenger car and light truck radial tires, 3 million heavy-duty radial tires and 50,000 special tires every year.

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