Approximately three-quarters of the funds that Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. needs to set up a factory in Spain have been secured through a share issue. On 22 August, the tyre maker informed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it had issued 94,307,847 shares to 20 parties at a price of RMB 26.69 (£2.93, US$3.68) per share, raising approximately RMB 2.8 billion (£307.1 million, $386.4 million).
Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. has received the regulatory approval to invest US$296.78 million in the construction of its previously announced Morocco tyre manufacturing project. The “Certificate of Overseas Investment of Enterprises” was issued by the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Commerce on 5 June 2023 and is valid for two years.
On 17 January, Sentury said it will adjust its financing plan through the stock market and specifically non-public offering of shares. After the adjustment, the tyre manufacturer will obtain no more than 2.8 billion yuan (about £330 million; 380 million euros), which is far lower than the 4 billion yuan (about £480 million; 540 million euros) proposed in the previous plan.
On 2 January 2023, Warren Rudman left his role as general manager Sentury Tire Spain. Rudman’s departure follows Sentury’s 30 December announcement that the company is planning to invest in a new tyre factory in Morocco. Signing off his departure announcement, Rudman noted “I will start a new journey soon”.
From next year, Qingdao Sentury Tire will manufacture passenger car tyres under the Nokian brand name for the Central European market. Under a recently-signed contract manufacturing agreement between Nokian Tyres plc and Qingdao Sentury Tire Co., Ltd., production of a selected range of Nokian-designed and -tested tyres will commence in the first half of 2023, with products reaching the market in the second half of the year.
During The Tire Cologne show, which took place in May, we spotted the Landsail Qirin EV concept tyre on the stand of wholesaler Inter-Sprint. It is a concept no longer, as Qingdao Sentury Tire officially debuted the tyre yesterday.
Sentury Tire, the tyre manufacturer behind the global Landsail tyre brand, has outlined its plan to construct a 522.59 million euro car and light truck tyre plant in the Galicia region of northwest Spain. Qingdao Sentury Tire Co, Ltd’s board of directors approved the proposal to build capacity for 12 million high performance and light commercial tyres on a three-year schedule at a meeting in the last quarter of 2021, announcing this intention to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on 19 December. The company has implemented a 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Sentury Tire (Spain) Co, Ltd, via its Hong Kong trading company for the project, and wants to ramp up production in two phases; it expects the plant to reach 50 per cent capacity (six million tyres) after two years, with the second half added after three years. Sentury wants to achieve these milestones in 2024 and 2025 respectively, pending construction conditions in Spain and the availability of funding, which Sentury plans to self-raise.
Having received approval back in June, Qingdao Sentury Tire has successfully completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and is now listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (China) as of 11 September 2020. 11 per cent of the company’s shares were valued at 1.31 billion yuan (162 million euros; £149.859 million) by investors, resulting in a theoretical total valuation of 1.47 billion euros. The offered shares offered were oversubscribed 2887 times over. But what is the company planning to do with its newly-raised funds?
Grouptyre states that Sentury Tire’s Landsail brand has held a stable 1.5 million units per year for the last 3 years, meaning that an estimated one in 25 UK vehicles is fitted with Landsail tyres.
Qingdao Sentury Tire reports that its aviation tyres have gained MDA (Modification Design Approval) certification by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) following take-off and landing tests conducted using a Boeing 737 at Yantai Laishan Airport in Shandong Province late last year. This MDA certification, the first given to a privately-owned tyre manufacturer in China, approves Sentury aviation tyres for sale and use within the country.
Sentury and Huagao launched their first electrostatic conducting graphene tyre at the 2016 China International Graphene Innovation Conference (GrapChina) on 22 September. The launch comes less than a month after Sentury and Huagao officially announced their cooperation on the product.
Sentury Tire has selected a plot of land just outside LaGrange, Georgia as the location for its US$500 million US tyre factory, according to various local news sources. Reports in local US newspapers suggest that the decision was made on Thursday 1 September – at which point the choice was between the shortlist of the reportedly successful Georgia location and the Memphis Regional Megasite in Tennessee.
When Tyrepress.com visited Qingdao Sentury Tire Co., Ltd in China late last year, newly-appointed executive vice-president Rami Helminen shared details about the US factory project he’d been hired to head. He disclosed that “hundreds of millions of US dollars” would be invested in a factory, and that a search for a suitable site was already underway. It appears the tyre maker has decided upon a location in the state of Tennessee.
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