Linglong tyre to build a tyre factory in Serbia

A Chinese company plans to invest almost $1 billion to build a tyre factory in Serbia’s Zrenjanin Free Trade Zone, SeeNews reported on Monday, citing a filing by the Shandong Linglong company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The report said the company planned to produce over 13 million high-performance radial tyres per year at the factory, lured by lower production costs than elsewhere in Europe.
It said construction would start in April 2019 with a completion date of March 2025.
News of the investment follows months of unconfirmed reports in Serbian media that Linglong planned to spend some 400 million euros in the country.
The Serbian government says Chinese investment reached around $6 billion by the end of last year.
In 2010, state-owned contractor China Road and Bridge Corporation built a 170-million-euro bridge over the Danube, financed with a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China, Exim.
By 2016, Serbia owed Chinese banks some 5.5 billion euros, and Bank of China even opened a Serbian branch in January 2017 to service the growing number of Chinese companies looking at opportunities in Serbia.
In May 2017, Serbia borrowed $297.6 million from China's Exim bank to finance the reconstruction of the railroad between Belgrade and Stara Pazova, the first leg of a new high-speed, Chinese-built railway line to Budapest that falls under China’s Belt and Road Initiative to bring Chinese goods to Europe.