When you think of tires, which cities do you think of?
Clermont-Ferrand, France, where Michelin is located?
Akron, USA, where Goodyear is located?
Or Milan, Italy, where Pirelli is located?
I guess, nine and a half out of ten people can’t think of it – Guangrao, a small county under the jurisdiction of Dongying, Shandong.
But this is a place that has to be zoomed in several times on the map to find it. Surprisingly, 8 companies have been shortlisted for the top 75 global tires.
8 homes!
What concept?
A county in Guangrao is worth the size of several countries combined.
Guangrao is located in the Yellow River Delta and is under the jurisdiction of Dongying City.
When I was a child, I grew up in Guangrao. What I remember most is not the tires, but the salt-alkali land at the mouth of the Yellow River.
At that time, the ground was covered with white flowers, as if a layer of salt had been sprinkled on it, and the crops were growing sparsely.
Old people often say that this place cannot support people.
But who would have thought that decades later, one of the world’s largest tire industry clusters would grow on this saline-alkali land that did not support people.
The annual production capacity of Guangrao radial tires is 196 million units.
For every six tires sold nationwide, one comes from Guangrao.
The export value of rubber tires in 2025 is 24.37 billion yuan, accounting for 15.1% of the country and 26.6% of Shandong Province.
Selected into the National Small and Medium Enterprise Characteristic Industry Cluster and Shandong Province Advanced Manufacturing Cluster.
Someone asked, why is Guangrao Tire?
I said, this is called “digital version of straw boat borrowing arrows”.
Back then, Zhuge Liang borrowed the arrows of Dongfeng and Cao Jun. Today, Guangrao Tire borrows the wind of 5G and the arrows of AI, “borrowing” real competitiveness in the global market.
It’s not about fighting head-on, but using wisdom and intelligence to find its own ecological niche in the industry chain.
Let’s talk about Yongsheng Rubber first.
The first “black light factory” in the industry in Dongying means that there is no need to turn on the lights in the workshop, the machines work by themselves and run 24 hours a day.
The numerical control rate of core equipment exceeds 95%, production efficiency increases by 23%, and order delivery cycle is shortened by 30%.
In the past, the tire factory was bustling with people, machines roaring, and workers sweating profusely.
What now?
The lights were dim, the robot arm was flying up and down, the AGV car was running on its own, and the entire factory was like a huge precision instrument.
The digital transformation coverage rate of industrial enterprises above designated size in the county reached 97%, and the comprehensive digitalization rate of key business links reached 72%.
This means that in Guangrao’s factory, almost two and a half of every three machines are connected to a digital brain.
Look at Huasheng Rubber.
The country’s first 5G + AI tire quality inspection system is located here.
In the past, quality inspection relied on human eyes. It was time-consuming and labor-intensive to look at a tire over and over, and it was also prone to leakage.
What now?
The AI camera scans and produces results in milliseconds.
The quality inspection time has been reduced from 8 seconds to 4 seconds, and the first-birth quality inspection has been shortened from 40 minutes to 10 minutes.
The efficiency has doubled several times, and the accuracy is even higher.
Guangrao’s tire industry not only works on its own, but also has international influence.
The 16th China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire and Auto Parts Exhibition was attended by 800 domestic and foreign companies, including more than 50 of the world’s top 75 tire companies and the world’s top 500 companies.
A county-level exhibition can attract half of the world’s tire giants.
The Guangrao tire industry has directly created employment for tens of thousands of people.
More importantly, the identity of industrial workers is changing – from the “manual workers” sweating on the assembly line in the past to the “technical workers” who now control CNC systems and monitor AI quality inspections.
I had a childhood problem. I used to dry vulcanize the tires in a tire factory, and my clothes would squeeze out water at the end of the day.
Now he has become the operation and maintenance engineer of the “black light factory”, sitting in the central control room staring at the big screen, holding not a wrench but a tablet in his hand.
Among the top 75 global tire companies, there are about 30 shortlisted companies from China, and Guangrao County accounts for 8 companies, more than a quarter.
There is only one giant, Michelin, in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Akron in the United States has long lost its glory. Pirelli in Milan, Italy, has also been acquired by Sinochem.
Guangrao, a small county in the Yellow River Delta, is becoming one of the most eye-catching coordinates on the global tire industry map.
The rise of Guangrao Tire has been recognized at the national level and has been selected as a national small and medium-sized enterprise characteristic industrial cluster and an advanced manufacturing cluster in Shandong Province, which means that it has reached the top level in the country in terms of industrial chain integrity, technological innovation capabilities and market competitiveness.
From sweat-driven to digital intelligence breakthrough, from saline-alkali land to global tire industry highland, Guangrao is using “black light factory” and 5G + AI quality inspection to define new standards for manufacturing in China.
Next time someone asks you where the tire industry is the strongest, don’t just think of France, the United States, and Italy.
Tell him: Guangrao County, Dongying, Shandong, a small place in the Yellow River Delta, is using hard-core technology and smart manufacturing to impress the whole world.
