Deruibao Tire seeks distribution partners

Shandong Deruibao Tire Co., Ltd., produces passenger car radial tyres under two Chinese brands plus the slightly more anglicized Deruibo international export moniker. Deruibao is currently looking for international distribution partners having embarked on an export programme last March. Initially things began with the export of the firm’s truck and bus radials, but moving forward, the company hopes to do the same with passenger car radials in 2012.

The company currently manufactures 3 million all-steel tyres a year across 100 stock keeping units (SKUs), but the company began building a 24 million unit a year plant a couple of years ago. The firm already produces 13 patterns and 13 sizes of truck and bus radials.

When Tyres & Accessories last spoke to company representatives at Brityrex in Manchester last October, the plan was to achieve 24 million units of output by the end of 2011. It appears that this ambitious goal was never quite reached. Now the target is for a phase one production line to kick off with 6 million units at some point during 2012. Together this means existing and new output will equate to the best part of 10 million units a year.

Talking to Tyres & Accessories during the Automechanika Middle East exhibition in Dubai in June, executive manager Wang Haiyan explained that the company is aiming to reach a domestic to export ratio of 60:40. The majority of these will be aimed at North American and Europe, but judging by the fact that the company were exhibiting in the Dubai, the Middle East and Africa are likely to become export destinations as well.

But bearing in mind the fact that Deruibao is such a new company, with much of its production capacity still under construction, can the firm meet the forthcoming regulations about to be introduced in 2012? The answer is yes according to Wang Haiyan who told T&A that the firm is already prepared for labelling, with “documentation preparations already underway.” To this end product development has been scheduled for October ready for refinement before the final release of the labelling compliant range in 2012.

Deruibao reports that is has already achieved CCC, DOT, ECE (E mark), ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. S-mark compliance is said to be in progress. Nevertheless the company remains confident of being able to meet the forthcoming standards due to the modern standards of virtually all the machinery in its new factory. According to the executive manager, all calendaring equipment is sourced from European suppliers. Meanwhile the factory’s truck and bus cutting and splicing machines are produced by Fischer. And quality control equipment – mainly balancers and uniformity testers – has been brought in from the US.

Further coverage on Shandong Deruibao Tire Co., Ltd. can be found here.