Linglong buys land for Thailand factory purchase

Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. Ltd. recently signed a contract with Hemaraj Land and Development plc. to purchase 49 hectares for a new manufacturing facility in the Hemaraj Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate, located 150 kilometres east of Bangkok in Thailand’s Rayong province. For Linglong, a leading Chinese tyre maker and one of the top 20 globally, the factory plans are something of a first as the mark the first time the company has sought to build a factory outside the People’s Republic.

Commenting on the news Wang Feng, president of Shangdong Linglong Tyres said: “Linglong Tyres has been granted privileges from Thailand’s Board of Investment for the production of radial tyres for passenger cars and light trucks with an investment of 3,500 million baht (€88m/ £70.7m). Being a successful auto-cluster complete with upstream to downstream supply chain, Hemaraj ESIE is considered the best location for our new plant. Hemaraj is well known for its world-class industrial estate development which will be a key success factor for our project. Construction of the plant will start in January 2013 and should be completed by January 2014. We expect to begin production from June 2014, at a capacity of 2 million units per year.”

Greenmax roll-out comes to the UK

Tyres & Accessories met with Linglong’s export manager Merry Wang at the recent Brityrex exhibition in Manchester and discovered not only that the company has been able to achieve BB grades, according got the new European labelling standards but has also rolled out its new Greenmax product generation into the UK. The approach is not as simple as a new brand, but rather “a product family” as it was described. Look out for further coverage of both stories in the November issue of Tyres & Accessories.