Guizhou Tyre breaks ground on plants in China, Vietnam

Guizhou Tyre Co. Ltd., producer of the Advance and Samson brands, is embarking on a major capacity expansion program, breaking ground recently on tire plants in China and Vietnam with over 4 million units of annual commercial tire capacity combined.

The plant in China, at the company's new headquarters site Guizhou, Guiyang Province, the 1.77 million-sq.-ft. facility will have capacity to produce 3 million truck and bus tires annually as well a separate production hall for 5,000 "giant engineering tires" per year.

Being built with a budget of a $310 million, the new factory is expected to generate about $430 million of annual sales when in operation, the company said. The budget for the production hall for the large engineering tires is roughly $42 million, Guizhou said. That unit is slated to come on stream in January 2021, capable of building tires sized up to 27.00R49, each weighing nearly 3,300 pounds. In Vietnam — where Guizhou earlier this year set up a company called Advance Tyre (Vietnam) — the new plant will have the capacity for 1.2 million truck/bus tires per year. The plant is being built in the Long Giang Industrial Park in Tien Giang province, adjacent to Ho Chi Minh City.

Guizhou — the world's No. 34 tire maker with 2018 sales of $875 million — has disclosed Phase I and II plans for this project that call for an initial investment of $245 million for 1.2 million units of annual capacity, with Phase II budgeted at $140 million to raise capacity to 2 million units.

The project is expected to generate sales of about $150 million annually at full capacity. All tires produced at the plant will be sold to overseas markets, the company said.

Guizhou earlier said the site in Vietnam covers nearly 74 acres. The plant eventually will span 1.47 million square feet.

Guizhou Tyre is represented in North America by North American Commercial Tire Resources Inc. — aka GTC North America/Great Lakes Tire — in North Canton, Ohio.