The inaugural Tire+ exhibition made its debut in Shanghai today. Beginning with an opening parade of the CEOs of the top 12 Chinese tyre manufacturers, which was covered by national broadcaster CCTV, organisers CURC have taken steps to reflect the Chinese tyre industry’s increasing focus on quality. It also means large and professional stands from many of the biggest firms in the business including: ZC Rubber, Linglong, Sailun Jinyu, Doublestar, Triangle, Double Coin, Aeolus, Prinx Chengshan and Guizhou/Advance Tyre – to name just a few. This is all supplemented by an impressive number of forum discussions and four halls of tyre and rubber manufacturing stands in the RubberTech exhibition next door.
While CURC’s partnership with the China Rubber Industry Association has clearly helped pave the way towards greater support from the leading domestic market players, the entire global top 10 were noticeable by their absence. Even those just outside the top 10, but continuing to produce large numbers of tyres in China – the so called wufis (wholly owned foreign entities) – are missing with the exception Pirelli/ChemChina, of course. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if this changes. However, for the time being there is much to be said for the inaugural Tire+ show that rose metaphorically from the ashes of CURC’s previous partnership with Messe Essen – Reifen China.
Tire+ 2017 runs from 20 to 22 September 2017 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.
