7.8 Billion! SAILUN Makes Third Heavy Investment in Egypt

Recently, SAILUN Group announced that it plans to invest $1.141 billion (approximately 7.8 billion RMB) to build the "Egypt Tire Capacity Upgrade Project". This is the third time SAILUN has made a heavy bet on Egypt, pushing its overseas capacity layout to a new height, and further releasing a deep signal that Chinese tire companies are restructuring the global supply chain to cope with international trade barriers.

Heavy Boost in Three Phases, Egypt Base Capacity Surges

The announcement shows that the new project plans to produce 27 million semi-steel radial tires, 1.65 million full-steel radial tires, and 20,000 tons of off-road tires annually. The project will be implemented in the Teda Industrial Park, Suez Canal Economic Zone, in two parts: the 9 million semi-steel tire part that has already been advanced will be built by the original Egyptian subsidiary Shams El Sherouk; the remaining 18 million semi-steel tires, 1.65 million full-steel tires, and 20,000 tons of off-road tires will be undertaken by the newly established wholly-owned subsidiary Senro Tyre.

Reviewing SAILUN's layout in Egypt, it can be described as playing every move carefully. In August 2025, SAILUN initially invested $291 million to start building a factory in Egypt; in April 2026, it invested an additional $285 million for expansion; plus this heavy investment of $1.141 billion, the total investment of SAILUN in Egypt has exceeded 10 billion RMB.

Once all three phases of the project are completed, the SAILUN Egypt base will have a huge capacity to produce 36 million semi-steel tires, 3.3 million full-steel tires, and 20,000 tons of off-road tires annually, with semi-steel tire capacity achieving a multi-fold leap.

Avoiding Trade Risks, Restructuring Supply Chain Delivery

In the past few years, the tire industry has repeatedly verified a pain point: for capacity with high export dependence, the biggest risk is not that the production line is not large enough, but that the country of origin and delivery path are "choked" by trade barriers. Frequent anti-dumping/anti-subsidy investigations by Europe and the United States, and stricter rules of origin, make the single structure of "Made in China, Shipped Globally" increasingly fragile.

SAILUN has repeatedly increased its investment in Egypt, with the core logic being to shift capacity targeting Europe and the Middle East from "long-distance export" to "near-shore manufacturing". Egypt is located at the transportation hub of three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe, possessing the unique logistics advantages of the Suez Canal. At the same time, Egypt has abundant trade agreement resources. Through the "Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Agreement", it can enter Europe with low tariffs. As a member of the Arab Free Trade Area and the African Continental Free Trade Area, it is an excellent springboard for radiating to the Middle East and Africa.

Setting up a factory here, SAILUN is able to exchange a shorter chain for higher certainty, not only optimizing the raw material procurement and finished product export links, but also effectively avoiding existing and potential international trade barriers.

Capacity Matrix Takes Shape, Moving from Capacity Expansion to Supply Chain Restructuring

In SAILUN's view, capacity expansion is just the surface; the core is to promote the supply chain transformation from a "low-cost export structure" to a "multi-center delivery structure". With the advancement of the Egypt project, SAILUN has built six major globalized production bases covering China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico, Indonesia, and Egypt.

This "multi-center delivery structure" zones global capacity precisely according to tariff zones and consumer markets: the Asia base secures Asia and Americas channels, Mexico focuses on North America, and Egypt radiates to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Even if a certain region suddenly encounters tariff barriers or shipping fluctuations, SAILUN can also take orders and deliver through other bases. This flexibility itself is a powerful profit protection mechanism.

Industry analysts believe that if the Egypt project runs smoothly, what SAILUN gets will not only be the capacity of a few production lines, but a globalized base that cannot be "one-size-fits-all" cut by tariffs. This is not only a re-allocation mechanism for orders, but also a deep practice of Chinese tire enterprises going global transitioning from "cost-driven" to "supply chain resilience-driven", arguably the investment with the deepest impact on the long-term competitive landscape in recent years.