Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. set to establish operations in Frankfurt am Main

Peter Feldmann, chairman of FRM GmbH’s supervisory board and Chief Mayor of the City of Frankfurt, said, “I’m very pleased that Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. has decided to open a permanent establishment at the business location Frankfurt. This strongly confirms the appeal that our city has in the eyes of international investors.” “It marks a great achievement that all of the involved parties jointly succeeded in attracting Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. to Frankfurt in the face of fierce competition from other locations. The close cooperation among all of the institutions involved was a key factor contributing to this accomplishment. For example, the company received outstanding support at all times,” commented Dr. Rainer Waldschmidt, CEO of Hessen Trade und Invest GmbH (HTAI).

Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. was founded in 1958 in Hangzhou, China. Today, the company is the largest Chinese tire producer and ranks among the top 10 tire producers in the world. The Zhongce Rubber Group employs more than 30,000 people across the world and generates global revenue of USD 5.5 billion. The company’s arrival in the FrankfurtRhineMain region will create initially somewhere between five to eight new jobs.

“We are extremely proud of having convinced Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. of the tremendous advantages offered to companies operating in our region. This is a further testament to the expertise centered in the FrankfurtRhineMain region, a leading automotive industry location. As Germany’s most central automotive industry location, we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and skills in the area of automotive supply. The arrival of the Zhongce Rubber Group marks a further consolidation of the region’s status as the preferred business location in Germany for Asian automotive companies,” remarked Eric Menges, CEO of FrankfurtRheinMain GmbH International Marketing of the Region (FRM GmbH).

FrankfurtRhineMain is one of a few regions in Germany with a rich tradition of hosting automotive industry companies. Opel, which is among the oldest German automotive manufacturers, began production in Rüsselsheim in 1899 and has been in operation ever since. The first tire factory in mainland Europe opened in Hanau in 1893. Today, the region is home to several automotive industry segments and is not dominated by any one major corporation. This enables cooperation to take place irrespective of the supply chain and eases companies’ access to partners and customers.

FrankfurtRhineMain serves as an ideal platform for global companies, from which point they can carry out their operations in Europe, Asia, and the USA. The region’s prime location in the Central European Time zone (CET) facilitates communication between the companies operating there and the rest of the world. The numerous flight connections departing from and arriving at Frankfurt’s international airport allow companies located there to offer top caliber services, research and development activities, and headquarters functions worldwide, and to quickly visit their subsidiaries and partner companies whenever necessary. Rubber and plastics products are one of the major automotive industry segments represented in the FrankfurtRhineMain region, which includes the development and production of tires. Furthermore, three of the world’s leading tire producers, Goodyear Dunlop Tires, Pirelli, and Bridgestone, have established their German headquarters in the FrankfurtRhineMain region. The region is also home to Nexen Tire, Sava Tires, Kumho Tires, Hankook, Falken Tire, Avon Tyres, and Sumitomo Rubber.