Chinese tire maker Jiangsu General Science Technology Co. Ltd. (JGST) has disclosed plans to build a plant in Anqing, Anhui Province, initially for truck/bus tires but with capacity for passenger tires to be added. Later.
Wuxi, China-based JGST — which goes to market using the Celimo, Chituma, Qima, TBB and TM tire brands — has budgeted $472 million for the plant, scheduled to open in the latter half of 2022 with a Phase One rated capacity of 1.2 million truck/bus radials.
The plant will be JGST's second factory in China. The Wuxi, China-based company — represented in North America by Statewide Tires Inc. of West Covina, Calif. — also operates a plant in Thailand that opened in 2019.Phase two, for 9 million units of annual car tire capacity, will take up to 26 months to complete.When fully on stream, the 3.23 million-sq.ft. plant is expected to employ 1,560 workers and generate $45 million in annual net profit on $426 million in revenue, General Science said.
Anqing is considered a "prefecture-level" city in southwest Anhui province, with a population of over 5 million.
Anqing has been a hub city for China's automotive sector, home to both China's traditional auto heavyweights such as Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. and JAC Motors as well as electric vehicle makers such as NIO Ltd.
The city estimates the value of the local vehicle industry at $16 billion annually, with over 600,000 unit annual production by 2025, JGST said, citing government figures.
JGST's plans for this factory are on top of plans it revived recently to build a tire plant in Cambodia, three years after suspending a project there in favor of investing in Thailand.
The firm has budgeted $202 million for the project, which will be located in in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ), in southwest Cambodia.
The plant, which is expected to be operational by September 2022, will be rated at 6 million passenger tires a year.
