Doublestar to build tire plant in Algeria

China's Qingdao Doublestar Group is planning to build a car and truck tire plant in Algeria in partnership with local investors El Hadj Larbi Pneumatiques.

The joint venture project foresees a factory capable of producing 5 million passenger and 2 million truck/bus tires a year, Doublestar said, without disclosing the plant's projected location in Algeria.

If the project is realized, it would represent the second tire factory to be built in Algeria in the past few years. Earlier in 2019, a plant in Sétif, operating under the aegis of Saterex-Iris E.u.r.l., initiated production of passenger tires. That project represented the return of tire production to Algeria five years after Group Michelin closed its factory there in 2013.Doublestar said it will invest just $5 million in the project, with the remainder of the $250 million coming from the joint venture partners. Doublestar subsidiary Hong Kong Doublestar International signed an agreement earlier this year with El Hadj Larbi Pneumatiques to set up the venture, the Chinese tire maker announced in its first half financial results statement.

The two parties also will jointly establish a trading company in Dubai to sell tires made at the plant.

In the first half of 2019, Doublestar — which has a 45% ownership stake in South Korea's Kumho Tire Co. Inc. — recorded sales of $326 million, up 9% from the year before.

Net profit dropped 47% to $4.2 million.