Foreign News Collection and Editing

■Recently, rumors have been rife that Kumho Tire has decided to build a production facility in Europe. However, the company officially refuted the claim today. "At present, we have not made any official decision to build a factory in Europe. We are studying various possibilities in an effort to provide better services to our valued customers.

■Nexen Tire leads innovation and becomes the first tire company in Korea to adopt VR design analysis. This VR system was independently developed by Nexen's Central Research Institute in Magok, Seoul. With this system, users can operate real-scale tire models in a virtual environment, thereby improving the accuracy and quality of product design. By introducing VR technology, the number of physical prototypes will be greatly reduced, thereby shortening the tire development cycle and reducing R&D costs.

■Liberty Tire Recycling in Pittsburgh recently announced that it has successfully acquired two scrap tire processing companies in Florida-Empire Tire of Edgewater LLC and McGee Tire. Through recycling and reuse, Liberty converts waste tires into a variety of commercial and retail products, produces more than 100 products from recycled rubber, and sells them in more than 10,000 retail and commercial locations in North America.

■India's carbon black industry continues to expand, with total production capacity approaching 1.82 million tons, showing strong momentum. Within the country, Philips Carbon Black Company (PCBL) is firmly in the leading position with 5 plants located in different states, which together constitute its huge production network.

■The global aviation industry has shown a significant growth trend in recent years, especially in the aircraft tire market. According to Future Market According to the latest report released by Insights, the global aircraft tire market is expected to be worth $1.8 billion by 2023 and grow to $3.3 billion in the next decade, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%.

■On January 3, the European automobile market achieved considerable growth in November 2023. According to the latest data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), new car sales rose 6.7% year-on-year to 885,581 units. This growth lasted for 16 months, showing a continued recovery trend in the market.

■The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) revealed an ambitious transportation infrastructure plan to complete a rubber tire tram project in Chiang Mai by 2028. Construction is expected to start in 2025 with a total budget of 1.5 billion. 9.3 billion baht. The MRTA report pointed out that choosing rubber tire trams can not only reduce construction costs, but also be more environmentally friendly.

Domestic information collection and editing

▲ In December 2023, China's rubber market experienced a slight decline. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, China's total imports of natural and synthetic rubber (including latex) in that month were 723,000 tons, down 5.1% from 762,000 tons in the same period last year. In 2023, China's total rubber imports reached 7.952 million tons, an increase of 8% compared with 7.36 million tons in 2022. This data shows that China's demand for rubber raw materials has maintained steady growth in the past year, which to a certain extent reflects the continued stable development of the supply and demand relationship in the domestic and foreign markets and the industrial chain.

▲ Recently, Wanxiang Xinyuan Technology Co., Ltd. decided to extend the construction period of the "Smart Factory Project for Waste Tire Recycling" of the fundraising project to December 2024, provided that the implementation subject, implementation method, construction content, investment purpose of the raised funds and investment scale of the fundraising project remain unchanged. The construction scale of the "Smart Factory Project for Recycling Waste Tires" is to process 200,000 tons of waste tires annually, and the project will be built in two phases.

▲On the morning of January 9, Li Weidong, President of the China Tire Recycling Association, met with Fabien Gaboriaud, Senior Vice President of Michelin Group, the vice president unit of the China Tire Recycling Association, in Beijing. Academician Zhang Liqun, Honorary President of the Association, entrusted Professor Ye Xin of Beijing University of Chemical Technology to attend the meeting on behalf of the Association. Professor Li Heping, Director of the Technical Committee of the China Tire Association, Duan Ying, General Manager of Zhilunwang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and relevant personnel of the Association also attended the meeting.

▲Hai'an Rubber Group Co., Ltd. updated the listing application review dynamics on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on December 29, 2023. It is understood that Hai'an Rubber IPO intends to raise 2.952 billion yuan for the expansion project of all-steel giant engineering radial tires, the technical transformation and upgrading project of the automated production line of all-steel giant engineering radial tires, the construction project of the R&D center and the replenishment of working capital.

▲Jiangsu General Technology Co., Ltd. announced that it plans to invest in the construction of the Cambodia High-Performance Radial Tire Project (Phase II). Including an annual output of 3.5 million semi-steel radial tires and 750,000 full-steel radial tires. The construction period of the project is 18 months. According to calculations, after the completion of the project, the annual average operating income is expected to increase by 1.701 billion yuan, the annual average net profit is 231 million yuan, and the after-tax investment recovery period is 6.19 years. After the project reaches full production, the Cambodia base of General Shares will have an annual production capacity of 8.5 million semi-steel radial tires and 1.65 million full-steel radial tires.

▲The high-end multifunctional conveyor belt production line of Xi'an Heavy Equipment Weinan Rubber Products Co., Ltd. has officially started production. According to reports, the production line integrates the manufacturing of three types of conveyor belt products, including steel cord conveyor belts, layered conveyor belts, and rubber surface molded whole core belts, and is expected to achieve an annual output value of 60 million yuan. The production line is highly intelligent and integrated, which can significantly improve production efficiency and reduce labor intensity.

▲The Gansu Lanshi Renewable Resources Recycling Project is about to start trial production. The project has introduced the industry's advanced tire cracking and recycling intelligent equipment. Compared with the traditional carbon black production process, the carbon emissions in its production process are only 15% of the latter. After the project is put into production as a whole, it is expected to achieve an annual output value of 140 million yuan.

▲On January 11, Yanchang Petroleum Northwest Rubber Hose Branch achieved significant sales performance in 2023. As of December 26, the branch has sold a total of 580,000 meters of military and civilian hoses, an increase of 30,000 meters compared with the same period last year, with a growth rate of 5.17%. Even more impressive is that its total new product market development has achieved a leapfrog growth of up to 300%.

▲Linglong Tire has made a major breakthrough in its independent research and development process. The company successfully rolled off its first giant engineering radial tire 27.00R49 at 13:30 on January 10. This move not only filled the gap in Linglong's giant engineering radial tire production, but also marked a breakthrough in the production capacity of this high-end tire product in Northeast China.

▲ Kubison Tire (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. recently announced a major investment project, planning to spend 10 billion yuan to build a new semi-steel tire and full-steel tire production line in the Huai'an District Economic Development Zone in Huai'an City to expand its tire production capacity. It is reported that the project covers an area of ​​about 968 acres and aims to meet the market's growing demand for high-quality tires. According to the announcement, Kubison Tire's production capacity is designed to reach 30 million semi-steel radial tires and 3.5 million full-steel radial tires per year.