Shandong Linglong Tire Co. planning to expand in Thailand
China: The
Chairman of Shangdong
Linglong Tire Co. Ltd., one of the prominent tire company of China, has
revealed that the company is planning to build two more plants outside China.
The Chairman- Mr. Wang Feng also revealed that the tire company is following
“3+3” strategy, by having 3 manufacturing plants in China and 3 plants located
abroad.
The
company is already operating one international plant in Chonburi, Thailand,
since 2014, and also expanded the capacity of the plant with the production of
radial truck/bus tires last year and revealed its plants to further have test
track in Thailand. Further, while hosting a delegation of Thai government
officials, the Chairman has now revealed the company’s plans to invest in
expanded rubber compounding capacity at the same plant. He further stressed on
the most advanced process equipment to be used in the production, to ensure
quality as well as environmental protection, whereas, he mentioned nothing
about scale of those plans and their investment values.
As
of now, Mr. Wang did not reveal the locations of second and third plant of the
company, which will be considered as a part of the company’s plan to “advance
its internationalization gradually”, but Ms. Sibunruang, the minister of Thai
Industry revealed to the Thailand’s National Newspaper that, the tire factories
would consume a huge amount of natural rubber, which is one the key crop of
Thailand.
As
per the latest report by TechSci
Research- “Thailand Tyre Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020”,
Thailand is one of the leading rubber producer across the world, and accounted
for around one-third of the global rubber production in 2014. The country has
also emerged as one of the most preferred location for the automotive
production, due to availability of cheap labour and geographical advantage of
its location in ASEAN region. Major global automotive OEMs such as General
Motors, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Honda, Isuzu, Ford, Nissan, etc., have
established their manufacturing plants in Thailand, in order to address
increasing domestic as well as global demand for automobiles, which in turn,
has been surging demand for automotive tyres in the country.
As per TechSci Research, the strategic decision
taken by the China based tire producer will give company the access to all
ASEAN markets and will simultaneously help the company to tap the OEM tire
demand in Thailand and other neighbouring countries, that too at a lesser cost.