As one of the fastest growing regions in global tire imports in recent years, the Middle East has attracted widespread attention from the industry. Many tire companies have targeted this market and announced plans to invest in building factories.
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently eight major tire projects planned/under construction in the Middle East, with a total investment of approximately US$5.2 billion.
Saudi Arabia plans three major tire projects
On November 15, Saudi tire manufacturer Blatco signed an agreement with Thai exporter Golden Star Rubber, under which Golden Star Rubber will support Blatco in building a $470 million plant in Thimphu, western Saudi Arabia.
The plant will initially produce 4 million passenger car tires per year, and will be expanded to 6 million tires per year, including truck and bus tires.
In March this year, Blatco also signed a technology transfer agreement with Kumho Tire, and the two parties plan to set up a joint venture tire factory in Saudi Arabia. Kumho will provide it with passenger car tire production technology.
At the time, Blatco aimed to build an 85,000-square-meter factory in western Saudi Arabia by 2027 with a total investment of $1.5 billion.
The first phase of the plant is planned to produce 7.5 million passenger car, light truck and truck and bus tires per year; the second phase will double the production capacity to 15 million tires per year.
In addition, on October 26 last year, Pirelli signed a joint venture agreement with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) to invest approximately US$550 million to build a tire factory in Saudi Arabia with an annual production capacity of 3.5 million tires.
Under the agreement, PIF will hold a 75% stake in the joint venture, Pirelli will hold the remaining 25% and provide technical and commercial assistance as a strategic technical partner. The factory is expected to start production in 2026.
Egypt to add four new tire factories
According to a report on November 18 by the Pyramid Tires online website, the tenth meeting of the Ministerial Group for Industrial Development held that day reviewed the current negotiations between the public commercial sector and an Italian company that wants to cooperate in the production of car tires in one of the ministry's factories. The company initially reviewed the plant's production line, with the goal of producing 1 million tires in the first phase, with a total investment of $500 million for the project.
In April last year, a Chinese trade delegation visited Egypt and signed an investment agreement with AOI to build two tire factories in Egypt.
In November this year, Egyptian media reported that Egypt will sign a cooperation agreement with a Chinese company to build a factory in the Suez Canal Economic Zone to produce various types of automobile tires. The initial investment amount is US$360 million, and there may be plans for subsequent capital increase and expansion.
The plant is expected to be put into production by the end of 2025, with the goal of producing 6 million tires per year in the first phase and increasing annual capacity to 12 million in the second phase.
The second plant will be built in Amiriyah, Alexandria for heavy-duty tires for agriculture and heavy machinery. There is currently no progress information on this project.
Last September, Rolling Plus Chemical Industries Co. announced an investment of 1 billion euros to build a new tire plant in Egypt.
The factory will be located in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, covering an area of 400,000 square meters. The annual production capacity will reach 7 million tires, and the construction will be carried out in three phases.
Projects under construction in Morocco and Pakistan
In June this year, the building workshop and other facilities of Sentury's Morocco factory have completed the roofing. The company plans to build a 12 million high-performance radial tire project for cars and light trucks in Morocco, and will become the main supplier of original equipment tires to famous European car brands.
Among them, the first phase is the "annual production of 6 million high-performance passenger car and light truck radial tires" project, with an investment of US$297 million.
In the second phase of the project, Sentury raised 193.0647 million U.S. dollars of its own funds to invest in the construction of the "Annual production of 6 million high-performance passenger car and light truck radial tires project (Phase II)" in Morocco.
On July 7 last year, Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif met with a Chaoyang Longmarch Tire delegation led by Chairman Li Qingwen in Islamabad. Chaoyang Longmarch Tire intends to increase tire production at its Pakistan plant to boost annual exports in this category to $200 million.
As early as July 2022, Service Long March Tyres Limited, the first all-steel radial tire production and R&D base jointly established by China and Pakistan, was officially put into production. The total planned investment for this project is US$250 million, and the current annual output of the first phase factory project is 740,000 sets.
With the economic development and improvement of highway network construction in Pakistan in recent years, the market demand for all-steel tires is increasing. After the third phase of the factory project is completed, it is expected to produce 2.4 million sets of all-steel radial tires annually.
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