Shandong plans to transform region's tire industry

SHANDONG, China (Dec. 8, 2014) — The general office of the Shandong provincial government has issued guidelines for the tire industry operating within its region.

Titled “Implementation Plans on Promoting Transformation and Upgrading of the Tire Industry,” the document was unveiled Oct. 22. It states that the Shandong government will set up its market-access conditions for the tire industry in the province. This will be based on previously announced national standards, and will include compensation terms for companies that shut down below-standard facilities.

Further measures in the pipeline, according to the report, include a “green tire certification system” to provide support in the form of investment, loans and tax breaks for any company certified as a “green tire maker.”

Shandong expects green tires to account for 35 percent of the province’s total tire production volume by the end of 2017.

The plans also include a province-wide on-line monitoring platform to be completed in 2015. This platform will monitor tire makers’ capacity, workload and expansion capability, as well as supply and demand in the market.

According to the document, in 2013 Shandong had a 282 million production volume of bias tires and radial tires, accounting for 53 percent of China’s total production.

The province’s document projects tire makers in the province to take up a 20-percent share in the global market by 2020.