Chinese tires are making waves going overseas.
By the end of 2025, more than 20 Chinese tire companies have built more than 40 factories in 14 countries.
Many companies no longer just build one factory overseas, but have formed an “overseas dual-base” or even “multi-base” layout.
In the past, we sold tires all over the world, but now we open factories all over the world.
The overseas layout of Chinese tire companies has experienced typical changes.
In the early years, the purpose of going overseas was simply to circumvent the “double-reverse” barriers in Europe and the United States, so they all rushed to Southeast Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries became popular choices, and industries gathered together just like when they went to Dongguan to open factories.
But now, this pattern is changing.
Southeast Asia is still the most densely populated overseas production base for Chinese tire companies, but there is an internal reshuffle, especially in Cambodia.
First, the United States grants Generalized System of Preferences treatment to Cambodian products, and many tires can enjoy preferential tariffs when entering the U.S. market; second, Cambodia is a natural rubber producer and has advantages in raw material supply; third, the local government has a proactive investment policy for the manufacturing industry.
Under the superposition of these factors, Cambodia has gradually become a new gathering place for Chinese tire companies.
For example, in January 2026, Triangle Tire announced an investment of 3.219 billion yuan to build a production base with an annual output of 7 million tires in Svay Rien Province, Cambodia. This is a reflection of the logic of “raw materials + tariff advantages”.
However, Chinese tire companies no longer only focus on Southeast Asia. Chinese tire factories are beginning to appear in South America, Africa, and even Europe.
In April 2025, Linglong Tire announced an investment of 8.71 billion yuan to build a production base in Brazil with an annual output of 14.7 million sets of tires.
In early 2026, Guizhou Tire launched a project to produce 6 million semi-steel radial tires per year in Morocco, with a total investment of approximately US$299 million.
Sailun Tire continues to expand its production capacity in Mexico, Egypt and other places, and has established a production network covering multiple continents.
From an industrial logic perspective, Chinese tire companies have deployed their production capacity near major consumer markets, which can not only reduce transportation costs but also circumvent trade barriers.
There is also the Russian market. At the Russian International Tire Show in March 2026, many Chinese tire companies made high-profile appearances, such as Huasheng Rubber, Zhengdao Tire, etc.
This shows that Chinese tire companies are moving from “export-oriented manufacturing” to “global manufacturing network.”
Ten years ago, going overseas was still a “try it out”, but now it has entered a real expansion stage, from a single project trial to a systematic global production capacity layout, and most of the leaders are industry leaders.
Sailun Tire is one of the first companies to go global. Its overseas planned production capacity has reached 9.75 million full-steel tires and 49 million semi-steel tires.
In January 2026, Sailun Tire increased the total investment in the Indonesian project and doubled the annual production capacity of semi-steel radial tires.
Its overseas factories have changed from “backup production capacity” to core production capacity.
In addition to the expansion of production by leading companies, the implementation of new projects by other companies is also accelerating.
Triangle Tire’s project in Cambodia is expected to start construction in March 2026, and after it is put into production, the average annual operating income is expected to reach 2.585 billion yuan.
Doublestar Tire’s factory in Cambodia will complete the first phase of production in September 2024 and enter the production capacity ramping stage in 2025.
As Chinese tire companies spread their factories around the world, their product mix is also quietly changing.
In the past, China’s tire prices had advantages, but they were concentrated in the mid- to low-end market.
Nowadays, overseas production capacity is gradually taking shape, and companies are beginning to focus on product upgrades, moving from low-end supporting products to high-end and specialized product systems.
For example, Triangle Tire’s project in Cambodia plans to produce 7 million high-performance radial tires annually, targeting the mid-to-high-end market.
The products of Sailun Tire’s Indonesian factory cover segments such as engineering machinery and mining equipment.
In addition, Chinese tire companies are also looking for breakthroughs in extreme market segments. At the Russian International Tire Exhibition, Zhengdao Tire displayed tire products for cold climates, and Huasheng Rubber filled the gap in the local high-end engineering machinery tire market.
The rise of new energy vehicles has also changed the needs of the tire industry.
Many Chinese tire companies have launched special products in response to this trend. For example, Guizhou Tire released the Electric Shield series of new energy tires, Zhongce Rubber entered the supply system of mainstream car companies, and Sailun Tire’s “Liquid Gold Tire” jointly developed high-performance products with car companies.
Data show that global demand for automobile tires in 2025 will be approximately 2.11 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%.
This means that the global expansion of Chinese tire companies is far from over. It is upgrading from simply “selling products” to outputting industrial capabilities of “capacity + technology + brand + supply chain”. The “cluster overseas” of leading companies has driven the industrial chain to move overseas, and competition in the global tire market has entered a new stage.
