“Our overall performance in China's automotive market was relatively good. Our performance has achieved three times the growth of the market, whether it is cars or truck tires,†said Dr. Cao Kechang, Cooper’s senior vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific. In an interview, said. However, he believes there is still much room for improvement in this outcome. There is still too much opportunity for Cooper in the Chinese market to do better. Therefore, as soon as the second decade of China's entry into China has just begun, Cooper will continue to make efforts in brand, channel, localized R&D, production capacity expansion, etc., and will also be active in the two emerging markets of new energy vehicles and networked vehicles. Cut in, follow the pace of the OEM to continuously adjust its strategy in China in order to gain a bigger share in the domestic market. The environment is good for 2016 and will increase threefold for the Chinese market Affected by the preferential taxation policy for purchases, the production and sales of the Chinese auto market in 2016 reached 28.119 million vehicles and 28.058 million vehicles, respectively, an increase of 14.5% and 13.7% year-on-year, respectively, and a record high. The rapid growth of automobile production and sales has boosted the demand for tires and provided a powerful boost to the development of tire companies. As a member of this market, Cooper's business in China also achieved a significant increase in 2016. According to Dr. Cao Kechang, the growth of Cooper's business in China exceeded the growth rate of the Chinese auto market in 2016. “When we enter China relatively late, if we only meet the pace of growth with the market, it will be difficult to keep pace with the market over time. So we hope that growth must be higher than the market growth, at least three times the market growth rate. Last year, Both this year and next year, it's great to see that we have achieved our goal last year, whether it is a car or a passenger car tire." Dr. Cao further explained that in 2016, Cooper had a very steady development in the car tyres, especially in the front loading market. A number of best-selling high-end models in China were all equipped with Cooper tyres and were widely praised. In terms of truck and car tires, Cooper has also made new breakthroughs. Dr. Cao said: “We just established a new joint venture last year, Qingdao Gelida Rubber Co., Ltd., which is mainly focused on the production of truck and bus tires in the short-term and serves the replacement market. However, we expect that in 2018, Will change direction, try to enter the pre-installed market, because before entering the pre-installation still need to do a lot of preparatory work, such as quality system, certification system, etc., need the new company to spend time to prepare." It is understood that there are currently two Cooper plants in China, namely Kunshan Kundu Cement Plant and Qingdao Gelida Rubber Co., Ltd. The former mainly produces passenger car tires, while the latter mainly produces truck and bus tires. In the future, relying on these two factories, Cooper will continue to expand its production capacity and increase its share in the domestic market. According to Dr. Cao, only this year, Cooper planned to increase the production capacity of the Kunshan plant by 50% compared to 2016, and the factory in Qingdao, Shandong Province, due to its just-established, minimum growth of 100%. In addition, Cooper will also find other production bases in China. "At present, China's auto market has surpassed the United States and is the world's number one. This eliminates the need to relocate production bases abroad and put them on the domestic market, because doing a good job in the Chinese market is a big market." Continuing to advance localization strategy channels, brands, and R&D In April of the past, Cooper released its 2017 development strategy in China, saying that in 2017, Cooper will continue to make efforts in various aspects such as channels, brands and product R&D to accelerate its development in the domestic market. As for the specific localization strategy of Cooper, Dr. Cao also conducted in-depth exchanges with reporters in this interview. According to Dr. Cao, in the future, Cooper will continue to explore two major aspects in terms of channels: e-commerce and diversified services. Dr. Cao said that in 2016, the tire industry sales model has undergone tremendous changes. The proportion of traditional channels in the tire sales process has been gradually reduced. Instead, the rapid expansion of e-commerce channels and the rapid development of large-scale chain stores, and the service mode of these chain stores have been replaced. It is also changing, no longer providing only a single customer service, but in many different forms. This makes Cooper as a service provider, but also to follow the changes in channels to make changes, follow up e-commerce and chain, while at the same time with the chain of service model, tends to diversify. However, the traditional channels are still an important part of Cooper's development in China. According to Cooper's 2017 plan, Cooper will jointly research companies and consulting companies this year. Based on big data analysis of consumer attitudes, professional training will be used to manage store profits. Provide advice, link high-quality stores, create quality retail and distribution networks, and continue to strengthen traditional channels. In terms of branding, in the longitudinal direction, Cooper will continue to sponsor off-road competitions in 2017 to achieve brand re-extension. This year, Cooper sponsored the team rather than the event itself, and the new sponsorship will be announced in June. In addition, as an important embodiment of Cooper's display of product lines and increasing brand awareness, the continued construction of more superexperience centers is also the focus of the next phase of Cooper's work. At present, Cooper has a total of 9 super experience centers in China, forming an encircling strategic layout where consumers and distributors can see the vast majority of Cooper's tire products, making them the most intuitive for consumers and distributors. Product experience and brand awareness. “But we don’t have an established goal to build several homes. If we find the right partner, its stores already have enough business, and the location is good, the reputation and quality of service are also very good, and the other side is very willing to pass our We have the power to improve our business. We are happy to cooperate with it and build such a super experience center." Laterally, Cooper will continue to base its brand differentiation and regional market demand on the development of its tire brands. “As China's tire market is increasingly diversified and needs different brands to meet the different needs of consumers, each of our brands has a specific market. For example, Starfield is closer to the second and third tier cities because the second and third tier cities are localized brands. More often than not, as a U.S. brand, Cooper enters into a discrepancy, it is easier to win the market, and regional development is better understood.For instance, in cities and mountains, different requirements for tires require two different brands to meet the market. It's important to note that the product lines of our different brands do not affect each other, but they work together in different segments." In terms of localization research and development, Dr. Cao believes that it is very necessary to set up an Asia Pacific R&D center for the Chinese market. At present, the global tire industry is entering a high-speed development stage, and new technologies, new processes, and new materials have made great breakthroughs. In addition, the different demands for tires for electric vehicles and self-driving cars themselves and the demand for tires in different regional markets have increased. The more diversified, put forward higher requirements for Cooper. In this context, only by having the R&D center “localized†and directly engaging with the market to understand the specific needs of consumers can we immediately follow the market changes, respond quickly and seize business opportunities. “Not only that, because the tire industry is an industry with a high safety factor. After the production of intelligence, all the data in the production process must also be preserved to prevent problems in the later period. It is possible to find out where the problem is, so now We do data storage every day." Rising prices: We must not let channel agents lose money but also ensure that tire manufacturers do not lose money Due to the overall increase in the price of raw materials, the tire industry set off a new wave of price increases at the end of 2016 and continued to this day, leaving many tire companies in limbo. Dr. Cao believes that there are several reasons for the skyrocketing price of tires. The most important reason is the sudden drop in natural rubber stocks in the Qingdao Free Trade Zone in November last year. At the same time, it suddenly encountered floods that have not happened in Thailand for decades, and the short-term imbalance in supply and demand volumes. The promotion of raw material prices continued to rise – in just three months, the price of natural rubber in the country rose from 8,000 yuan/ton to 22,000 yuan/ton, and some downstream tire manufacturers “had no room for pressure†and only prices rose. †This price increase first took place in the card and passenger car tire market and gradually spread to the passenger car tire market. However, in Dr. Cao's view, only part of this price increase is reasonable, because the company loses money, the business can not go on, can only increase tire prices with the price of raw materials. However, some of them are buying in the short-term market. Some dealers have heard that they have to raise their prices again. They buy tires and sell them on a follow-up basis. This creates a few false demands. It is to see this, he revealed that although Cooper has also joined the ranks of rising prices, it is after the soaring raw materials, it took more than three months to adjust prices for the first time, and the price increase was relatively small. “Because we want to protect the channels, we must first communicate with the dealer before the price increase, instead of immediately following the price increase of raw materials, or some distributors will not sell if they think it is unreasonable. The whole channel will be destroyed. But this way We will lose a lot because we need to absorb a lot of costs because we need to self-digest ourselves.In addition, one reason for the small increase is that we judge that the rise in raw material prices is a short-term behavior, and it is bound to return to normal. Fortunately, our judgment is correct. Now, It has dropped to 12,000 yuan/ton, although it is still high, but I believe it will continue to decline. What we need to do now is to ensure that channel agencies do not lose money, and that tire companies also try not to lose money and return to normal operations." Talk about Cooper In response to this price increase strategy, Dr. Cao always put "responsibility to the channel" first. In fact, since Cooper officially entered China in 2006, channel construction has always been the most important task of Cooper's work in China. From the very beginning, the traditional channels were deeply entrenched in the combination of online and offline, and Cooper kept up with the tire market. Change, constantly introducing new models and expanding new channels. In addition, as an old tire company that has a history of more than a hundred years, understanding consumer behavior and accurately judging market trends is also a constant criterion. It is this determination to adhere to the actual situation and follow the market, which has enabled Cooper's performance in China in the past ten years to continue to improve and its influence has been continuously improved. It has also laid a solid foundation for Cooper's “new decadeâ€, so that Cooper is Move forward with new goals to develop a new journey in China! Isuzu Engine Parts,Spare Parts For Isuzu Engine,Engine For Isuzu,Genuine Isuzu Engine Shandong Lixu International Trading Co., Ltd. , https://www.sdhxmachinery.com
Cao Kechang, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Cooper Tire, USA 
Qingdao Gelidar Rubber Co., Ltd. 
Tire prices rise
The rapid development of China's automobile industry in recent years has not only created a good development environment for independent enterprises, but also promoted them to actively “go globalâ€, and has also attracted many foreign car companies and component companies to accelerate “staking their claims†in the domestic market. Among them, Cooper, a US tire company with a hundred years of history, has invested heavily in the Chinese market over the past few years, such as customized R&D specifically targeting the Chinese market, and has greatly upgraded the equipment and R&D capabilities of the Asia-Pacific R&D center, as well as the right With brand positioning, the business in China has achieved continuous growth, especially supporting services, and the scale has steadily increased over the past few years.