Aeolus expanding ag tire production in China

Henan, China – China’s Aeolus Tyre is planning to add production capacity for agricultural radial tires, through a recently disclosed technical transformation project.

As part of the move, the Chinese tire maker is aiming to upgrade an existing ‘wide-base tubeless tire production line’ with an annual output of 150,000 units, said Aeolus in a statement last month.

The project at one of Aeolus’ two facilities in Jiaozuo City, will involve adding 11 ‘highly automated’ vulcanising machines and two agricultural radial tire building machines.

Furthermore, two “3D winding machines” and a small-angle horizontal cord cutting machine will be added to the workshop as part of the conversion project.

Once completed, the workshop will add production capacity for radial farm tires by 30,000 units per year.

The move, said Aeolus, is in line with the company’s strategy to shift production form engineering tires to agricultural radial tires and speciality off-highway tires.

Aeolus Tyre, part of China’s Sinochem Group, operates two factories to the east and west of the Jiaozuo City economic and development zone.

The expansion, said Aeolus, will take place at the eastern factory.

In April, Aeolus announced another upgrade project to add an annual production capacity for 20,000 units of giant OTR tires at the Jiaozuo facility.

The company is also completing an earlier project to convert other lines to expand production of 'giant' engineering tires to just under 111,000 units/year, while eliminating capacity for the manufacture of 1 million TBR tires. (ERJ report)