Trelleborg has acquired a 180-employee pneumatic tire operation from U.S. group Maine Industrial Tire LLC in Xingtai (Hebei), in eastern China, to facilitate the group’s expansion in the Chinese market for specialty tires, primarily agricultural tires. Maine Tire will continue to operate and retain ownership over the solid tire portion of the facility.
“Our customers are becoming increasingly global,” says Maurizio Vischi, business area president of Trelleborg Wheel Systems. “They are now becoming established in Asia, mainly in China, which is why we are implementing this acquisition. This is an excellent way of entering the rapidly expanding Chinese market.”
Vischi says there is large potential within agricultural machinery in China because more than half of all agriculture in the country is currently conducted manually and the shift to using more vehicles and machinery is rapidly taking place. Through this establishment, Trelleborg says it becomes the first manufacturer of agricultural tires from the West to have its own production in China. The establishment provides proximity to Chinese customers, but also support to European and US customers in the local Chinese market.
According to Maine Tire, the pnuematic business was not core to its long-term business strategy, and the sale allows for better alignment of the company's global resources. The company will expand and optimize its solid tire production at its Hebei, China, and Red Lion, Pa., facilities, a process that commenced last month with the announcement of the closure of its Gorham, Maine facility. To read about it, click here.
