“Black Industries” are turning green in Mingcun

Mingcun of Shandong province locates in the central region of Qingdao, Yantai and Weifang cities. Three “black industries” – rubber tire, machine-building and graphite processing – make it a renowned place domestically and internationally.

Lately, U.S.-based Cooper Tires, one of the world’s top 10 tire companies and the second largest tire company in the U.S., sought cooperation with Qingdao Geruida Rubber, a local rubber company in Mingcun.

Chen Yong, a government official of Mingcun said the cooperation was the outcome of Mingcun’s rubber company in realizing industrial upgrade.

In the production plant of Geruida, only a few people are in sight. The company pays great significance in applying advanced technology, materials and facilities. There is a production line using industrial robots and several automatic production lines, said Cui Bo, person in charge of the technology.

The company has cooperated with National Engineering Research Center for Rubber and Tire to embed chips in tires to monitor the pressure, temperature and performance of tires.

Mingcun, a town featuring tire production in Shandong province, has an annual capacity of more than 12 million tires being exported to overseas countries and regions with industrial output value of about six billion yuan.

The “black industries” are heading the target of green development in Mingcun.

Mingcun has focused on developing high-tech profit-making low-resource-consuming environmentally protective industries, said Chen.

People in Mingcun are proud of the emerging of investment casting, graphite exploitation and processing, and fluorite exploitation industries there. The town has established a foundry industry park with annual capacity of foundry goods of 200,000 tonnes being exported to Japan, South Korea and Europe.