Goodyear and Michelin penetration into Europe took a few decades, Bridgestone more than halved that, Hankook and Kumho did it in about 12 years, Giti Tire want to do it in five. The largest Chinese manufacturers are growing quickly, they have their sights set breaking into the US and Europe, and what’s more they plan to do it quicker than any company has before. Speaking to Tyres & Accessories, Dr Enki Tan predicted that Giti Tire will soon be known as the manufacturer to emerge from China. Giti is already a global scale operation, with 2007 sales totalling the best part of $2 billion. And while the fact that the group’s holding company is registered in Singapore means it can’t be officially be called a Chinese domiciled manufacturer, semantics can’t stop Giti from being the largest manufacturer of tyres in China.

The company’s biggest production base is in Hefei, Anhui province (not a long way from where Continental recently announced it will build a Greenfield site of its own). The manufacturing complex here employs around 6400 staff and covers some 1.11 million square metres – only 350,000 m2 of which is currently covered. At the end of 2007 production totalled 34,000 passenger/light truck, 6500 truck and bus, and 4000 bias tyres per day.