Sailun denies Jinyu is planning a tyre factory in Turkey

Sailun-Jinyu Group has denied reports in Turkish newspaper Hürriyat suggesting the firm is planning on establishing a tyre factory in Turkey by 2020. The Hürriyat report, dated 5 March, said Sailun is planning to set up a joint-venture tyre factory in Turkey with its Turkish distribution partner there, Yeslas.

In answer to Tyres & Accessories’ questions Zhou Shengyun, overseas business director at Sailun-Jinyu Group in Qingdao, said: “We have seen this story. We have no plans at present to manufacture in Turkey.”

While clear, Sailun-Jinyu’s official comment doesn’t explain how the Hürriyat report could have got it so wrong. The original story quoted the chairman of Yeslas, Yasar Çetinkaya, as saying: “We intend to build a new factory with [Sailun-Jinyu Group], the factory will be equipped with advanced equipment, with an annual output of 11m to 1.5m tyres.”

While it is easy to make a small mistake about capacity numbers or timeframes, it is surprising to learn that a journalist got the entire concept wrong. The use of parentheses around “Sailun-Jinyu Group” in the Hürriyat report, could offer one explanation. Perhaps Yeslas is planning a JV with one manufacturer another and the details got lost in translation. Or, alternatively, the original writer simply got the wrong end of the stick.