Zhongce Rubber posts 7.4% revenue growth in H1 2026 on overseas expansion

Chinese tire giant Zhongce Rubber Group (ZC Rubber) has posted year-on-year growth in both sales and profits for the first half of 2026, driven by aggressive overseas expansion and sustained order demand. The Hangzhou-based company reported operating revenue of Yuan23.5 billion (€3 billion) for the six-month period, up 7.41% from the same period last year. Net profit attributable to shareholders, excluding non-recurring items, rose 5.8% to Yuan2.4 billion. ZC Rubber attributed the gains to a ‘full tire portfolio, full-market coverage and globalised manufacturing and operations’ despite facing ‘multiple challenges such as dramatic fluctuations in raw-material prices and relatively intense industry competition.’ Overseas revenue accounted for 48% of total revenue at the end of the reporting period. The group’s Thai plant produced 9.73 million semi-steel passenger car tires in the first half, a 38% year-on-year increase, while its Indonesian unit manufactured 1.27 million all-steel truck tires, up 249%, with PCR production now underway at the facility. Technology also played a key role in ZC Rubber’s growth, with the company highlighting a joint project with Harbin Institute of Technology that won the second prize in the 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award. The project, focused on ‘key technologies and green intelligent manufacturing of high-performance tires,’ was the only tire-industry project to receive an award at this level in the past decade. ZC Rubber also emphasized its push into artificial intelligence across manufacturing, including product design, intelligent simulation, production-line inspection, unmanned material handling and operational management. In sustainability, the company is scaling up renewable energy use—such as photovoltaic and biomass energy—and deploying its independently developed ‘10,000-tonne-level waste tire green self-recycling and regeneration technology,’ which it describes as a replicable and scalable solution for low-carbon development in the industry.