Cooper Tire Acquired Majority Stake in Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co. Ltd.
United
States:
Cooper Tire has recently acquired 65% stake in China’s Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber
Co. Ltd. (GRT). The deal signed between the companies was worth USD93 million.
Currently, Qingdao Ge Rui Da
Rubber Co. Ltd. is manufacturing truck and bus radial (TBR) tires for international
markets, however, now the company would produce truck and bus radial (TBR)
tires to meet Cooper tire demand across North America, Asia and other neighboring
markets. Also, it is being planned that the Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co.
facility would also produce passenger car radial tires, in coming years.
The company has already
announced that the name of the China based facility would be renamed to Cooper
Qingdao Tire Co. Ltd. Also, Cooper has predicted that the facility has production
capacity of manufacturing almost 2.5 million to 3 million truck and bus radial
(TBR) tires as well as the same amount of passenger car radial tires, annually.
As per CEO, President Brad
Hughes “Our partnership with GRT is an important step in Cooper’s strategic
plan as it diversifies our TBR tire supply beyond a single source. Cooper is
committed to delivering high quality tires with superior value to our TBR
customers. In addition to this exciting new partnership with GRT, we continue
to actively evaluate other options around the globe for additional sources of
supply. We are pleased with the team at GRT as they possess deep industry and
technical knowledge and there is a strong workforce in place at the facility,
which offers space for expansion to accommodate future growth. We are proud to
welcome everyone at GRT into the Cooper family and look forward to many years
of success together.”
As per TechSci Research, Cooper
Tire is already a renowned brand not only in North America but across the
global market, as well. Besides that, the acquisition by the company with
Chinese tire player is anticipated to further expand the Cooper’s production
capacity, which would assist the company to serve customer demand in a better
possible way across entire North America. Eventually, the sale of Cooper tires
in truck and bus as well as passenger car segment is estimated to hike, in approaching
years.
According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “United
States Tire Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2021’’, demand
for tires in the United States is forecast to grow at a CAGR of over 5%, in volume
terms, during 2016-2021. The vehicle fleet of the country is dominated by
passenger car segment, followed by light commercial vehicles, medium and heavy
commercial vehicles, off-the-Road (OTR) vehicles and two-wheeler segment. As a
result, the passenger car tire segment held the largest volume share in the
country’s tire market in 2015, and its dominance is anticipated to continue
during the forecast period as well. The vast demand for tires from these
regions can mainly be imputed to the large automobile fleet size, high
population density coupled with the rapid urbanization in the area.