Haohua Tire to expand in Sri Lanka; ups China capacity

Weifang, China – Shandong Haohua Tire is to build a Sri Lanka plant with 20 million unit annual capacity for high performance radial tires.
 
Phase one of the plant will produce 3 million truck and bus tires each year, and the remaining 17 million unit annual capacity are all for passenger car tires, the company told ERJ.
 
Phase one has $200 million (€185 million) investment earmarked and is located on the coast of Sri Lanka, to the southeast of its capital Colombo, said the company.
 
The project was originally scheduled to break ground earlier this year, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, said the company. Construction of the project will take 18 months.
 
Headquartered in Weifang, Shandong province, Haohua is also upping truck and bus tire capacity at its existing site in the city’s Shouguang county. 
 
With €195 million (1.5 billion yuan) investment, the project aims to add 3 million unit annual capacity and is now in partial operation.
 
Full operation was slated in mid 2020 but is postponed as well, on account of uncertainty in market conditions and insufficient manpower, the company told ERJ.
 
Haohua has three plants in China with an overall nameplate capacity of 5 million truck and bus tires and 20 million passenger car tires each year.
 
The company manufactures over 700 tire products under labels including Lanvigator, Aplus, Compasal and Royal Black.

In 2019 it had €785 million production value and exported $500 million-worth tires.