A few days ago, the Qingdao Municipal People’s Government officially announced the list of key projects for 2026. 600 key municipal projects with a total investment of 1.11 trillion yuan were unveiled simultaneously.
In the field of high-end chemicals and new materials, six key tire projects have attracted much attention, with a total investment of more than 7 billion yuan.
This batch of projects covers the entire industrial chain of R&D innovation, high-end manufacturing, and green intelligence, marking Qingdao’s acceleration in building a “R&D + manufacturing” two-wheel-driven rubber tire industry cluster worth 100 billion.
“R&D brains” gather: Weifang giants cross the city to enter the youth
In the list of projects announced this time, the cross-regional optimal allocation of industrial resources has become a highlight.
As a leading company in the tire industry in Weifang, Shandong Haohua Tire Co., Ltd. did not locate its new project in its headquarters, but chose to build a scientific research center in Laoshan District, Qingdao.
Behind this layout of “Weifang builds production capacity and Qingdao conducts R&D” is the company’s high recognition of Qingdao’s rubber talent pool and scientific research ecology.
Haohua Tire has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Laoshan District with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. It aims to leverage Qingdao’s advantages in industry, academia and research to break through the technological bottleneck of intelligent transformation.
At the same time, the National Rubber and Tire Engineering Technology Research Center project located in Shibei District was also selected for the list.
As the industry’s “national team”, the center is jointly constructed by Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Softcom and Sailun Group. It is planned to be put into use in 2027. It will form a research and development team of more than 3,000 people and become the source of new materials and new processes in the industry.
Manufacturing end efforts: tens of millions of production capacity and segmented tracks are advancing simultaneously
While “building a nest to attract the best” on the R&D end, the project layout on the manufacturing end shows the dual characteristics of scale and differentiation.
The West Coast New Area has become the main battlefield for capacity expansion.
The “annual production capacity of 12.6 million sets of high-performance radial tires project” implemented by Qingdao Sailun Tire Co., Ltd. has a total investment of 2.342 billion yuan.
The implementation of this 10 million-level production capacity project aims to further optimize the product structure through the effect of scale. Its core products focus on low rolling resistance and low fuel consumption, and are accurately adapted to new energy vehicles and efficient logistics scenarios, demonstrating the company’s determination to compete with the first-tier brands in the global tire landscape.
Pingdu City has become a gathering place for special tires, with three major projects “shooting three arrows at once”, deeply exploring the subdivision track:
Maishijia high-end special radial tire and passenger radial tire project: with a total investment of 3 billion yuan, it is Jiaodong’s first billion-level tire project focusing on new energy. Among the core products, new energy vehicle tires account for as much as 90%, and it is equipped with the construction of smart factories.
Elite’s annual output of 600,000 sets of high-end off-highway tire expansion project: focusing on high-end off-highway tires for mining, ports, engineering machinery, etc., and exploring high-threshold, high-profit market segments.
Start the expansion project of high-end agricultural radial tires with an annual output of 400,000 units: Aiming at the needs of agricultural mechanization upgrades, precise layout of special tires for high-horsepower tractors and harvesters.
Reshaping of the industrial landscape: Two-wheel drive to create world-class clusters
Industry analysts pointed out that Qingdao’s layout this time is not a pile of scattered projects, but a clear reconstruction of the industrial chain.
Through Shibei and Laoshan’s efforts in technology and standards, West Coast’s efforts in scale, and Pingdu’s differentiated competition in special, off-highway, and agricultural tires, Qingdao has outlined a clear outline of a 100-billion-level rubber tire industry chain.
This two-wheel drive model of “R&D + manufacturing” is not only conducive to overcoming the industry’s “stuck neck” technology and promoting the transformation of products to high-end, intelligent, and green products, but also promotes industrial synergy among cities in the Jiaodong Economic Circle through cases such as Haohua Tire’s cross-city layout.
With the implementation of these key projects, Qingdao will further consolidate its position as the core city of China’s tire industry cluster, which is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs and help China’s tire industry achieve the leap from a manufacturing country to a manufacturing power.
