Expansion at Triangle car tire plant due on stream by year-end

Triangle Group expects production at a new passenger tire line at its Huayang plant in Weihei to begin before year-end, the company disclosed recently.

Speaking to European Rubber Journal, the company said Phase 2 of an expansion project that began in 2017 is ready to come on stream, capable of 4 million passenger tires annually at full capacity.

This project follows another 4 million unit/year expansion at the same plant that came on stream in 2016 and is running at full utilization, Triangle said.

Phases 1 and 2 were budgeted at $435 million, according to Triangle's 2018 interim report.

The Huayang factory also originally had planned capacity for truck and bus tires as well as aviation tires, but those projects are still on the drawing board, the company said.

Throughout the first nine months of 2018 Triangle suffered an 8-percent decline in revenue to $832 million, according to the firm's third-quarter earnings report. Net profit during the period dropped 11 percent $49 million.

Triangle reported sales of 4.3 million tires in the third quarter, generating $278 million in revenue.