Yuan Zhongxue: Facing “Three Mountains”, Internationalization and Innovation-Driven Must be Upheld

"COVID-19, Sino-US relations, and anti-dumping” are currently the “three mountains” China’s tire industry is facing. In the face of various uncertainties, China’s rubber tire industry should adhere to internationalization and specialization, and promote the development of industry with scientific research and information technology.

Three Difficult Problems Rubber Industry Facing

The first problem is COVID-19.

COVID-19 came all of a sudden in 2020, leading to successive shutdown of local economies around the world, and shutdown of various industrial manufacturing. The rubber tire industry suffered severe losses because of the shutdown of automobile factories, traffic control, quarantine observation, massive stagnation of fleet logistics, etc. After domestic enterprises have resumed work and production successively, the economic operation of international social became stagnated, causing heavy losses to foreign trade enterprises and product exports.

The second problem is Sino-US relation.

China and the United States, one is the largest developing country and the other is the largest developed country. They have different social systems, cultural traditions and historical backgrounds. There are contradictions and inevitable conflicts in national development, financial currency, economic development, technological progress, etc. In the future, it is impossible for China to stop developing, and the United States will definitely prevent and contain us. These contradictions and conflicts will exist for a long time and will inevitably affect the development of rubber industry and internationalization process.

The third problem is anti-dumping.

Many countries have experienced rapid development, but no country has encountered more anti-dumping than China in recent years. Originally, Chinese tires were only produced domestically. Now they have gone abroad and many factories were established in Southeast Asia, embarking on the road of internationalization. However, in May, the United States initiated the “anti-dumping and countervailing” investigation on Thailand, Vietnam and other countries and regions, which affected the normal development of Chinese tire enterprises that “go global”.

Suggestions for Development of Rubber Enterprises of Different Sizes

Although there are many difficulties in development now, China’s rubber tire enterprises still have certain advantages in view of the current situation. At present, the production of domestic rubber tire industry has basically returned to normal. Especially in truck tire market, the demand is strong, and the supply is in short supply. This may be the best period in history and even for a long time in the future. To this end, two suggestions are made:

The first is globalization and internationalization. Globalization is an inherent demand for the development of productive forces, and no one can deny it. To avoid anti-dumping and achieve trade balance, it is necessary to achieve a global production layout.

The second is specialization. Globalization development is the development path of large companies, but for most small-scale companies, it is more important to be specialized, refined, and detailed. It is also a path of healthy development to achieve the ultimate on indispensables in niche market and achieve high cost performance. The per capita output value of such companies will not be low, and the ability to resist risks will be stronger.

Promotion of New Generation of Scientific Research and Information Technology on Industry

With the development of human civilization, the future manufacturing industry must eliminate the interference of human factors. In particular, tires are not only consumer goods, but also safety products. 5G intelligent manufacturing is the future development trend. In terms of quality uniformity, production efficiency improvement, cost reduction, visualization, traceability, all of these need the support of new generation of information technology.
Recently, Sailun has launched the Eco-Rubber Cloud, a cloud network of rubber industry chain, which has taken a new step for the development of China’s rubber industry towards the industrial Internet. In the future, it will continue to improve with the development of rubber industry and contribute to industry’s intelligent manufacturing.

The development of industry requires increasing investment in scientific research and improving innovation capability. China’s tire industry still has a big gap in basic research, theoretical research and material research. Therefore, strengthening basic research is the basis for supporting the international development of enterprises and making them bigger and stronger. If there is no good tire technology, no good process formula and materials, even if you have the technology of intelligent manufacturing, you cannot make good tires.