Cooper Tire plans to increase its sales in China by 50% every year

Cao Kechang, Cooper's global vice president and general manager of the Asia-Pacific region, said that in the first five years, the company's annual sales in China grew by about 30%. According to the internal planning of the company, sales growth in the next five years will be as high as 50% per year, compared to the average sales growth of 17% of the entire domestic tire companies. He said that the current Kunshan base has an annual output of 5 million, plus 12 million in Shandong base, Cooper's annual domestic production is about 17 million, of which most of the products are exported to Europe and the United States.

In 2010, the sales volume of Cooper Asia Pacific exceeded US$1 billion, achieving a year-on-year growth of 37%. After the announcement of the establishment of the Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Shanghai in 2006, the company established the Cooper Asia Pacific Technology Center in 2008 to support the development and testing of the Chinese market and export overseas products. The company currently has two production bases, among which Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Co., Ltd. mainly manufactures high-performance passenger vehicle radial tires, passenger cars and truck tires with an annual production capacity of around 12 million. After acquiring a 51% stake in Chengshan Company in 2006, in March 2010, Cooper expanded its joint venture company's shares to 65%. Another production base is Cooper Tire (Kunshan) Rubber Co., Ltd. In March 2011, Cooper increased the company's shares from 50% to 100%, becoming its wholly-owned holding company. Cao Kechang stressed that in the future, the company plans to reduce some of its exports to overseas, mainly to domestic production.