Shandong Haohua Tire Co. Ltd. has disclosed plans valued at $450 million for a radial car and truck/bus tire plant in Sri Lanka and to expand truck/bus tire capacity at a factory in Weifang.
Shandong Haohua, which goes to market under the Aplus, Compasal, Lanvigator and Royal Black brand names, is budgeting $200 million to build a plant in Sri Lanka with an eventual annual capacity of 20 million units and $250 million to expand TBR capacity in China.
Phase one of the Sri Lanka plant project foresees an annual capacity of 3 million truck and bus tires a year, the company told European Rubber Journal — a Tire Business sister publication — with the remaining 17 million units of annual capacity designated for high-performance passenger tires.Phase One is budgeted at $200 million. The plant will be located at a site on Sri Lanka's coast southeast of Colombo, the nation's capital, the company said.The project was scheduled to break ground earlier this year, Haohua said, but it was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Construction of the project will take 18 months.
Headquartered in Weifang, Shandong Province, Haohua also plans to add 3 million units of annual truck/bus tire production capacity at a factory in Weihang's Shouguang county.
This plant is one of three factories Haohua operates in China. Together they represent annual capacities of 5 million truck/bus tires and 20 million car tires.
The Shouguang County plant expansion was slated to ramp up starting in mid- 2020, the company said, but it was postponed as well, on account of uncertainty in market conditions and insufficient manpower.
he company manufactures over 700 tire products under labels including Lanvigator, Aplus, Compasal and Royal Black.
In 2019 it reported sales revenue of $866 million and valued its exports at $500 million. The company was ranked No. 23 on the 2019 Tire Business Global Tire Report ranking of the Top 75 tire makers with fiscal 2018 sales of $1.37 billion.
