China's overseas tire production capacity reaches 160 million(December 18, 2024)

"Not domestically, but overseas."

This is one of the strange phenomena that have appeared in the Chinese tire industry since 2023.

Well-known Chinese tire companies have begun to frantically engage in "overseas capacity competition". In just one year, the speed and number of China's overseas tire factories in construction and expansion have almost exceeded the total of the past decade.

By the end of November 2024, at least 11 Chinese tire companies will have newly built, expanded or even put into production factories, with a total production capacity of more than 159 million tires.

Cambodia's 70 million production capacity is about to emerge

Cambodia is a hot spot for tire companies to invest in 2024. In addition to the latest deployment of tire production capacity here, Sailun has added capacity investment in 2024, allowing it to achieve a comprehensive production capacity of 22.65 million tires in Cambodia in the future (with an annual production capacity of 21 million semi-steel radial tires and 1.65 million full-steel radial tires).

With the joint export efforts of many tire factories, Cambodia has become an important source of tire imports for the United States.

In the first three quarters of 2024, Cambodia exported nearly 2.26 million passenger car tires, more than 300,000 truck and bus tires, and nearly 970,000 light truck tires to the United States, an increase of 75.3%, 30 times, and 100.3% year-on-year, respectively. They ranked sixth, fifth, and third in U.S. imports, respectively.

Vietnam adds 25 million semi-steel tires
Vietnam, one of the traditional hot spots for Chinese tire investment, has seen the successive production of Haohua, Jinyu Tire and Guizhou Tire this year. It is particularly noteworthy that both Jinyu Tire and Guizhou Tire have deployed passenger car tire production capacity here. On December 2, 2024, Jinyu Tire's new annual production of 7 million high-performance semi-steel tires in Vietnam was approved by the investment authority.

Indonesia's production capacity exploded
In addition to the planned expansion of Thailand's production capacity, Zhongce has also implemented a number of overseas capacity expansion plans this year. The most exciting thing is that Zhongce achieved the offline production capacity in Indonesia in just 233 days.

Mexico's 10 million production capacity is under construction
In early 2024, Sailun took the lead in announcing its decision to invest in Mexico, becoming the first Chinese tire company to build a factory in North America. The overseas project was laid in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico in May this year, with an annual production capacity of 6 million semi-steel radial tires.

Pakistan welcomes more investment
Let's move the realization back to Asia. In December 2024, Shandong Huasheng Rubber will set up its first overseas factory in Pakistan. At present, the Pakistan Stock Exchange has received a statement from Gandara Tire and Rubber Co., Ltd. (GTR), a local Pakistani company.

Serbia's 1.1 million sets of production capacity are under construction
Although the overall capacity increase is not as large as that in Asia and North America, Europe's production capacity has also made new progress. After Linglong's Serbia factory achieved mass production, Linglong Tire increased its investment again.

Construction of 12 million tires in Spain is imminent
Also in Europe, Sentury has promoted the construction of production capacity in Spain. Like the global tire giant Bridgestone, Sentury also sees the potential for increasing supporting orders from "the long-term important position of Spanish automobile manufacturing in Europe".

The high stickiness of high-end car consumers to tire brands is conducive to the substantial breakthrough of tire companies' influence. Therefore, Sentury continues to promote its production capacity construction in Spain to gain more supporting market share.

Millions of tires in Morocco will roll off the production line in 2025
Sentury's production capacity construction in Morocco certainly also means increasing the supporting share. In addition, Sentury's layout of Morocco's production capacity is also conducive to its better realization of its global product supply capabilities.

Semi-steel tires are also a focus of overseas investment
At present, including planned production capacity, the overseas semi-steel and full-steel tire production capacity of Chinese tire companies has exceeded 159 million, among which semi-steel tires are still an investment hotspot, accounting for about 89% of the total investment.