WHEN American tyre giant Goodyear Tyre and Rubber rolled into China for a manufacturing venture last year, the mainland tyre monolith, Shanghai Tyre and Rubber, was watching with interest.
The entry did not quite heat up competition in the big Chinese market where the government backs the domestic tyre sector, but it did give Shanghai Tyre and Rubber a chance to consider strategies in the face of foreign competition.
Shanghai Tyre commands a major share in the market for radial tyres, a high-end product for trucks and passenger cars.
Company secretary Xu Dongming said the company had an 86 per cent share in the radial tyre market, and an 11 per cent share in that for bias-ply tyres or ordinary units.
Last year, 4.5 million tyres were produced, including 450,000 radial truck tyres and 1.4 million radial passenger car tyres, from new factories in Minhang, Shanghai.
The factories have the capacity to produce 600,000 truck tyres and five million passenger car tyres a year.
Unlike domestic tyre makers, Shanghai Tyre places heavy emphasis on the manufacture of radial tyres, whose significance is increasingly being recognised in China.
