China’s Prinx Chengshan Tire investing RM2.6b to set up tyre manufacturing plant in Kedah Rubber City

Here’s a big deal for the Malaysian tyre sector, Kedah and the Northern Corridor Economic Region. Prinx Chengshan Holdings Ltd, through its subsidiary Prinx Tire Malaysia (PTM), will invest RM2.6 billion over 15 years to build a tyre manufacturing plant at Kedah Rubber City (KRC). With that, Prinx becomes the industrial park’s first anchor investor.

The RM1.2 billion first phase of the investment will see its first fruits in a year’s time. Kedah Industry and Investment Committee chairman Dr Haim Hilman Abdullah said the 102.63-acre facility is expected to start exporting its first batch of products within a year, creating 1,056 high-value jobs in engineering, R&D and administration.

He added that PTM president Che Hongzhi indicated that several vendors under the Prinx Chengshan Group had given preliminary commitments to invest in KRC.

“This is an encouraging achievement. On behalf of the Kedah government, we remain committed to positioning Kedah Rubber City as a strategic investment hub. The plant is expected to export its first products within a year. We hope this becomes a reality,” Haim said at the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday, reported by NST.

The new Prinx factory and other rubber-related investors entering KRC will initially rely on imported rubber due to insufficient local supply, but Haim said that Kedah aims to mobilise local communities and growers to meet the demand. “We hope plantation owners, national plantation firms and smallholders will be mobilised to meet this demand. The opportunity is right before us, and not seizing it would be a loss,” he said.

Shandong-based Prinx Chengshan, which also has a plant in Thailand, has four tyre brands in its portfolio – Prinx, Chengshan, Austone Tires and Fortune Tires. The sector has two recent losses – last year saw the decades-old Goodyear Malaysia factory in Shah Alam shutdown, while Continental’s tyre plant in Alor Setar will end production by the end of this year.

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