In the past 10 years, Qingdao Qizhou Rubber Co. Ltd. has striven to expand its business in export markets and to facilitate this invested approximately $14 million in the construction of a OTR tire new factory in 2003. 
Since the completion of the facility in Qingdao (Shandong Province) in September 2004 the OTR tire specialist Qizhou has been able to produce around 100,000 tires per annum, reports Tyres & Accessories.
Central to the company’s range is the Marcher brand, through which the manufacturer of the “world’s largest OTR tires” (59/90R63) is represented in most corners of the globe and in the original equipment market, delivering to, as an example, LeTourneau Technologies for fitment to its dump trucks. The U.S. firm utilizes crossply Marcher OTR tyres in size 70/70-57 84PR with a L4 tread. Deliveries to Australia and North America are made and even involve the largest available LeTourneau dumpers, disclosed Qingdao Qizhou export manager Gavin Liu.
The Chinese OTR tiremaker is proud of such business connections, and at the CITExpo show in Shanghai presented a 57-inch giant tire to the public. This size tire was first produced by Qizhou in Qingdao in 2007, however, to date, only a few dozen pieces of this giant tire have been manufactured.
Since completion of further manufacturing facility construction work in 2006, Qizhou has exported its products to around 100 countries and enjoys an export turnover of $100 million. To maximize the potential of increasing this turnover figure, two years ago Qizhou Rubber took its first step into radialization. Since then a proportion of the 25-inch OTR tires manufactured have been radials.
Larger OTR tires will not be available in radial variants for the time being, however.
As of late the company has also developed radial agricultural tires; these products will most likely be made available this year, the export manager notes. At the moment no plans exist to introduce passenger car or truck radials.
