1、 The Basic Status of Tire Refurbishment Industry
China is a major consumer of rubber in the world. With the rapid development of the automotive industry and mining machinery, China has become the world's largest rubber consumer for seven consecutive years. According to statistics from the World Rubber Research Organization, China's rubber consumption in 2008 was 5.995 million tons, accounting for 27% of the world's total consumption. At the same time, China is also a country with extremely scarce rubber resources, with over 70% of natural rubber and over 40% of synthetic rubber relying on imports, resulting in a prominent supply-demand contradiction. In 2008, the domestic production of various types of tires was about 546 million (including motorcycle tires, etc.), and the generation of waste tires was nearly 200 million.
As is well known, the world's tire retreading industry has been established for over a century. The history of China's tire retreading industry can be traced back to the emergence of the tire retreading society in 1928. Even from the establishment of the first tire retreading factory in China in 1937, it has a history of 72 years. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China 60 years ago, the tire refurbishment industry in China has undergone earth shaking changes. From 2004 to 2008, the domestic production of new tires was 239 million, 318 million, 433 million, 479 million, and 555 million, respectively (an increase of more than double in five years). Due to the severe shortage of natural rubber and synthetic rubber resources, it has also driven the rapid development of the tire refurbishment industry. The number of refurbished old tires is increasing year by year, from 8 million in 2004, 9.6 million in 2005, breaking the 10 million mark in 2006, to 11 million in 2007, 12 million in 2008, and 13 million in 2009. China's tire refurbishment industry has begun to enter the ranks of major tire refurbishment production countries in the world. Although the tire refurbishment industry in China has developed rapidly, the variety of refurbished tires is not yet widespread enough, with over 80% currently concentrated in the tire refurbishment of public transportation and freight heavy-duty vehicles. For example, the refurbishment of car tires is just beginning, with a refurbishment rate of only 20% for large mining tires and only about 10% for aviation tires. According to the statistics of 54 domestic enterprises above designated size by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2008, tire refurbishment achieved a total industrial output value of 2.23 billion yuan; According to statistics from 209 enterprises above designated size, the recycled rubber industry achieved a total industrial output value of 12.3 billion yuan.
2、 The main characteristics of industry development in the past five years
（1） The expansion of industry scale is relatively obvious. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly a thousand domestic tire refurbishment enterprises with an annual production capacity of about 20 million pieces. More than 50 tire refurbishment enterprises have an annual output of over 50000 tires, 15 enterprises have an annual output of over 100000 tires, and the largest production enterprise has an annual output of over 300000 tires; There are also over a thousand enterprises producing recycled rubber and its supporting products, with an annual production capacity of 3.5 million tons. More than 100 recycled rubber production enterprises have an annual output of over 10000 tons, more than 10 have an annual output of over 50000 tons, and the largest production enterprise has an output of 100000 tons; More than 200 rubber powder production enterprises with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons; There are two methods for thermal cracking of waste tires in China. One is standardized and scientific cracking. Due to high investment, the produced carbon black has poor quality and is difficult to sell. Its development is slow, and its application proportion is less than 10%, with an annual output of about 50000 tons. Another type is the traditional method of refining, which accounts for over 90% and causes serious environmental pollution. Due to its low investment, fast recovery, and high profits, although it is explicitly prohibited by the state, it has been repeatedly banned. In 2009, the number of tires refurbished was 13 million, the production of recycled rubber reached 2.45 million tons, and the production of rubber powder was less than 100000 tons.
（2） The industrial layout is showing a trend of cluster development, with private investment dominating. Some large-scale tire refurbishment enterprises in China are mainly distributed in Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan, Fujian, Jiangsu and other places, and have formed a diversified development pattern of coexistence of state-owned, private, and foreign capital, with private capital becoming the dominant force; The production of recycled rubber has formed key production bases in Tangshan, Hebei, Nantong, Jiangsu, Pingyao, Shanxi, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Jiaozuo, Henan, Maoming, Guangdong, Ya'an, Sichuan, and other regions. Forming a one-stop industrial chain for the recycling, dismantling, regeneration, and deep processing of waste tires.
（3） Breakthroughs have been made in key technologies. There are mainly the following aspects:
1. The key equipment for tire refurbishment, rubber powder, and recycled rubber production has gone from mainly relying on imports to basically achieving localization today, and most products have been solved or reached international level.
2. The form of tire refurbishment has changed from hot flipped diagonal tires to pre vulcanized cold flipped radial tires.
3. The use of some current inspection equipment makes the inspection of refurbished tires more scientific and reliable, thereby ensuring the quality of the product.
4. The auxiliary agent for regenerated rubber has changed from high pollutants to a new alternative production capacity with less pollution emissions, which has greatly improved in exhaust gas treatment and energy consumption reduction.
5. The rubber powder desulfurization technology achieves dynamic, low temperature, atmospheric pressure, continuous, and net emissions.
6. The application of low-temperature micro negative pressure catalytic cracking technology has turned black pollution into green energy, achieving the goals of continuous, low-temperature, energy-saving, emission reduction, high efficiency, and environmental protection.