OTR tires are off-road tires. The products include agricultural tires, engineering machinery tires, mining tires, industrial tires, etc., which have become the fastest growing and highest-profit segment in the global tire market to date.
Thanks to the explosive growth of the global engineering machinery market in the past two years, the OTR tire market has developed rapidly, mainly in the two major markets of original equipment and replacement.
In China, in March this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Notice on the implementation plan for promoting the renewal of building and municipal infrastructure equipment", which clearly proposed to update and eliminate old construction engineering machinery and equipment, injecting new vitality into the OTR tire market.
In addition, the "Action Plan to Promote Large-Scale Equipment Upgrading and Consumer Goods Trade-in" reviewed and approved by the State Council's executive meeting will also further stimulate the demand for OTR tires.
In this context, domestic and foreign tire giants are rushing to grab a piece of this big cake, and within the month, several tire companies have announced major investments in OTR tires.
01 Aeolus 1.464 billion project officially announced
Aeolus Tire announced on the evening of August 7 that it had reviewed and approved the "Proposal on the Company's Implementation of the High-Performance Giant Engineering Radial Tire Capacity Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Project", agreeing that the company would implement the high-performance giant engineering radial tire capacity expansion and efficiency improvement project.
Earlier, it was reported that the project had obtained environmental impact assessment publicity and all approval procedures had been basically completed.
As another major investment of Aeolus Tire, the total additional investment of the project is 1.464 billion yuan, with a construction period of 24 months. After the project reaches full production capacity, it is expected to add 20,000 giant engineering radial tires per year, with additional annual sales revenue of approximately RMB 1.563 billion.
Aeolus said that the project is in line with the industry market situation and development trend, and is conducive to further optimizing the product structure and seizing the high-end market with excellent product quality. It is of great significance to comprehensively enhance the company's core competitiveness and increase market share.
It can be seen that under the situation of shrinking truck and bus tire market, Aeolus has already identified OTR tires as the driving force for the company's future growth.
02 Bridgestone increases investment by 1.222 billion
Bridgestone Corporation has invested ¥25bn (US$170m) to upgrade its Kitakyushu Plant in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, focusing on the production of off-the-road (OTR) tires for mining and construction vehicles.
It is reported that the Kitakyushu plant currently produces 170 tons of tires per day. The investment is part of Bridgestone's 2024-2026 medium-term business plan to ensure high quality and stable supply.
In the past two years, Yokohama Rubber has targeted the off-road tire market and implemented two major acquisitions around the world.
First, in 2023, Yokohama Rubber acquired Trelleborg Wheel Systems for US$2.3 billion, including its 14 factories around the world, with its main industry being OTR tires.
In July, Yokohama Rubber decided to acquire Goodyear's off-road tire business for US$905 million, which shows its ambition in the off-road tire sector.
03 A large number of new projects are about to emerge
In 2024, the global OTR tire market is undergoing rapid changes, becoming the biggest variable in the tire industry. The first largest acquisition was the expansion of Yokohama Rubber, and the second largest acquisition was also about the integration of OTR Tire.
On February 29 this year, Titan International, an American OTR tire manufacturer, acquired the specialty tire and wheel manufacturer Carlstar Group for approximately US$296 million.
In China, recently, Ningxia Shenzhou Tire's "Annual Production of 10.3 Million Sets of High-Performance Specialty Tires Industrialization Project" was filed. On July 22, the "New Off-road Tire Project" of Prinx Chengshan (Shandong) Tire was registered on the relevant platform. The total investment of the project is 1.111 billion yuan, and the annual production capacity will be 50,000 tons of off-road tires after completion.
At the same time, Zhongce Tianjin's 400,000 sets of off-road tire production capacity is about to be released; Sailun Weifang Tire's 100,000-ton off-road tire project is being accelerated; Linglong Tire's Jilin project with an annual production capacity of 140,000 sets of off-highway tires is expected to be put into production in August 2024; Chaoyang Long March Tyre's project with an annual production capacity of 200,000 sets of off-road tires rolled off the production line at the beginning of the year; General Science's "100,000 OTR Technical Transformation Project" has entered the production stage; Haian Rubber is planning to build a technical transformation and upgrading project for the automated production line of all-steel giant engineering radial tires (2,400 giant engineering tires per year).
DLFTECH is a professional equipment marketing & service company built by a senior R&D and marketing team in the tire & conveyor belt equipment industry. Benefiting from the rapid follow up of the international rubber industry's process re-engineering and the demand for industrial intelligence, DLFTECH, the best of the best, has rapidly developed into a new star in the international rubber machinery industry.
If any tire or conveyor belt industry customers need such as track shaping & curing press, tire mold online intelligent laser cleaning system, silent sponge sticking equipment etc., please feel free to contact info@delphygroup.com.
