Prinx eyes new markets for expanded Thai, Chinese tire plants

Shandong, China – Prinx Chengshan is looking to extend its overseas-reach, having recently expanded its tire manufacturing plants in Chonburi, Thailand and Shandong, China.

With the phase II project on-line, the Thai site can produce 8 million semi-steel passenger car radial (PCR) tires and 2 million all-steel truck & bus radial (TBR) tires.

With the added PCR and TBR production capacity, Prinx intends to further explore overseas markets, according to a 31 March company statement.

Target regions include North America as well as Europe, where the Chinese tire manufacturer opened a major warehouse facilty last July.

During 2022, Prinx said its three-year-old production facility at Chonburi had a utilisation rate of 57% for PCR tires and 95% for TBR tires.

In addition to the extra Thai capacity, Prinx also completed an expansion project at its production facility in Rongcheng City, Shandong last year.

The Chinese project added capacity for 1.05 million units of all steel TBR tires and 2.8 million units of PCR tires.

At full capacity, the Shandong factory can now produce 7.4 million TBR tires and 11.2 million PCR tires per year.

During 2022, the plant reported utilisation rates 69% for all steel TBR tires and 86% for semi-steel PCR tires.

Overall, Prinx increased production capacity by 25.5% year-on-year across all tire products, with PCR tires seeing a 33% rise and TBR tires up 15%.

In total, the group now has capacity to produce 19.2 million PCR tires and 9.4 million TBR tires across its two manufacturing bases.

However, Prinx has also recently suspended a project to build a second domestic tire production factory – in Anhui, Hefei – due to the economic slowdown in China and globally.

The decision (ERJ report), said Prinx, was based on “the forecast and analysis of the domestic and international economic situation and the company’s capacity utilisation rate.”