Three Steps to be Taken to Boost Shandong’s Tire Industry

The 2016 China International Tire and Rubber New Materials Industry Conference was held on May 16 in Guangrao, Shandong Province.

An industry insider expressed his view on how to help Shandong’s tire industry overcome present difficulties.

“Three steps” and “six trends”

The insider believes that the tire producers in Shandong has to take three steps to overcome the plight, namely enhancing the tire designs, becoming OEMs, and focusing on creation and innovation.

The development of international tire industry will see six trends, said the insider.

First, tire production transfers from the west to the east and market competition will be fiercer;

Secondly, the growth of tire production will change from quantity to quality;

Thirdly, rivalry between tire producers will escalate with the point of competence basing on technology;

Fourthly, the tire industry develops toward economic integration and internationalization;

Fifthly, the operation patterns of large tire companies will be diversified;

Sixthly, the use of environmentally friendly tires will become a mainstream.

Promoting high-performance green tires

China’s tire industry is of low profit margin because of low industrial concentration, frequent price wars, and high product homogeneity.

The industry insider said China’s tire producers have to enhance their innovation and build up their own brands.

In the meantime, the tire companies should accelerate industrial integration and construct strong distributing channels to address external challenges.

Enactment of the labeling law and promotion of high-performance green tires could be solutions.

China will carry out the tire labeling mechanism soon and the Standards of Tire Labeling Classification and the Management Rules for Tire Labeling are scheduled to be released in early June.

Facilitating industrial upgrade and product restructure, increasing the proportion of high-performance tires, marking the performance and classes of tires will labels will be the trends of the tire industry.

The 2nd China Green Tire Safety Week will come on June 15 to advocate the use of green tires.