Yuan Zhongxue's technology start-up enterprise to build a tire leader Sailun Tire earned 2.1 billion yuan in half a year to enter the global market

Yangtze River Business Daily News ● Yangtze River Business Daily reporter Wang Jing

Deeply cultivating the tire industry, "scholar-type" entrepreneur Yuan Zhongxue led Sailun Tire (601058. SH), soft control shares (002073. SZ) to the world.

At the beginning of the millennium, in the context of encouraging college teachers to start their own businesses, soft control shares and Sailun tires were born one after another, and Yuan Zhongxue, as one of the founders, attached great importance to research and development. Taking Sailun Tire as an example, its R&D expenditure in 2023 will be 838 million yuan, and it will pioneer a number of rubber mixing technologies and hold more than 1,000 patents.

With its technological foundation and global layout, Sailun Tire has become a top enterprise in the industry and ranked among the top 10 most valuable tire brands in the world in 2024. In terms of performance, in the first half of 2024, it is expected to achieve a net profit of 2.12 billion yuan to 2.18 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 102.68%-108.41%.

At present, the two companies have formed a synergistic effect in the industry, with a total market value of about 48 billion yuan. Holding two listed companies, Yuan Zhongxue has also gained a lot of wealth, according to the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List", Yuan Zhongxue's family ranks 2,573 on the list with a wealth of 9.5 billion yuan.

The family wealth of the two listed companies is 9.5 billion

Deeply cultivating the field of tires, Yuan Zhongxue has achieved a gorgeous transformation from a university teacher to the actual controller of two listed companies.

Yuan Zhongxue's entrepreneurial history began in 1999, when Qingdao University of Science and Technology encouraged the restructuring of school-run enterprises. Teachers set up a company to solve the problem that the school's scientific research results cannot be transferred. Turn a bad problem. Qingdao University of Science and Technology is known as "Huangpu in China's rubber industry", has a profound technical strength, with the advantages of universities, in 2000, Yuan Zhongxue and a group of teachers raised their own funds, organized the establishment of Qingdao University Soft Control Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "soft control shares"), began the entrepreneurial journey.

At the earliest, soft control shares were concentrated in the field of rubber machinery, and Yuan Zhongxue served as the chairman. He did not limit his career to a single field, but looked at the downstream tire field.

Since 2000, the scale of the automobile industry has been expanding, and correspondingly, the demand for tires has also continued to grow, so in 2002, Yuan Zhongxue initiated the establishment of Qingdao Sailun Radial Tire Information Production Demonstration Base Co., Ltd., which is the later Sailun Tire.

Unlike Soft Holdings, although Yuan Zhongxue is the "veteran" founder of Sailun Tire, he only serves on the board of directors. In the past few years, the soft control shares led by Yuan Zhongxue have grown rapidly. In 2006, Soft Control embarked on the road of capitalization and was officially listed. By 2015, the revenue of Soft Control Co., Ltd. exceeded 2.5 billion yuan, and the net profit also reached 210 million yuan, becoming a leading enterprise in the field of rubber machinery.

Yuan Zhongxue said in an interview, "As the founder of Soft Control Co., Ltd., there is not much room for growth in the current degree of personal achievement, but on the other hand, Soft Control Co., Ltd. is only a multi-billion output value enterprise after all, and it still needs to be grafted and enlarged." Personally, I am at the critical stage of the industry, with basic research, analysis and testing, material formula structure and other technical tools, to the tire platform, bend down, calm down, do a good job in scientific research, and do a good job in strategic planning. ”

To this end, in 2020, Yuan Zhongxue officially took over Sailun Tire and became the company's new actual controller, and at the same time, he resigned from various positions of Soft Control Co., Ltd. and devoted himself to Sailun Tire.

As the actual controller of two listed companies, Yuan Zhongxue has his own set of ideas for management, he once said: "If it is not listed, the boss of the enterprise is similar to the 'emperor of the soil', one person has the final say, there is no supervision and constraint, and the hidden risks can be imagined; after the listing, the boss of the enterprise is like the 'president', and the 'president' is very different from the 'emperor of the soil', because his every move is under the eyes of the public, and he has to accept supervision, be responsible for the people, and be responsible for the society." ”

As of the close of trading on July 26, 2024, the market value of Soft Control Co., Ltd. and Sailun Tire was 6.664 billion yuan and 41.36 billion yuan respectively. Controlling two listed companies, Yuan Zhongxue also gained a huge fortune. On March 25, the Hurun Research Institute released the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List", and Yuan Zhongxue's family ranked 2,573 on the list with a wealth of 9.5 billion yuan.

Technology is on the global market

On the evening of July 9, Sailun Tire announced that in the first half of 2024, the company is expected to achieve a net profit of 2.12 billion yuan - 2.18 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 102.68% - 108.41%; It is estimated that the non-net profit will be 2.03 billion yuan to 2.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 79.01% to 84.3%.

The company said that during the reporting period, the production and sales of all-steel, semi-steel and off-highway tire products reached the best level in the same period in history, and the sales volume of products at home and abroad increased by more than 30% year-on-year.

The growth of performance is due to the warming of the market, and it is inseparable from the strong fundamental performance of Sailun tires.

According to the new list released by GYBrand, Sailun Tire has ranked among the top 10 most valuable tire brands in the world in 2024, and is on the same list as Michelin and Goodyear.

What supports Sailun tires is the technical wealth accumulated by the R&D team headed by Yuan Zhongxue over the years.

One of Sailun Tire's representative works, namely "Liquid Gold Tire", pioneered the chemical rubber mixing technology, changed the traditional physical dry mixing method of rubber and filler, and effectively solved the "Devil's Triangle" problem that the three major performance indicators of "rolling resistance, wet slip resistance and wear resistance" of tires in the industry are difficult to optimize at the same time.

According to the test, the use of liquid gold tires can reduce the fuel consumption of fuel vehicles by 8% per 100 kilometers and save about 0.6L of fuel, and the power saving of electric vehicles per 100 kilometers can be 12%, and the wear resistance can be increased by 20% to 30% compared with ordinary tires.

As of the end of 2023, Sailun Tire has more than 1,700 valid authorized patents, and has formulated or revised more than 210 international, national and industry standards, ranking among the top in China's tire industry.

Yuan Zhongxue did not hesitate to invest in research and development. From 2020 to 2023, the R&D expenses of Sailun Tire will be 348 million yuan, 481 million yuan, 621 million yuan, and 838 million yuan respectively.

At the same time, Yuan Zhongxue made efforts in the global market.

As early as the period of soft control shares, Yuan Zhongxue laid out overseas markets. At present, the marketing network of Soft Control Co., Ltd. has spread all over Europe, the United States, Asia, Africa and other countries and regions, and can radiate more than 500 customers in more than 60 countries and regions around the world, and has established strategic partnerships with many high-end tire companies. In 2023, the overseas market of soft control shares will hit a record high.

As the earliest tire company in China to go overseas, Sailun Tire continues to expand its production capacity overseas. In October 2023, the company's Cambodia factory will invest in the construction of a new project with an annual output of 6 million semi-steel radial tires, and in January 2024, an additional investment will be made to increase the annual production capacity of 6 million semi-steel radial tires, and after the construction of the project is completed, the Cambodian factory will have an annual production capacity of 21 million semi-steel radial tires and 1.65 million all-steel radial tires; In December 2023, the company plans to establish a joint venture company in Mexico to invest in the construction of a project with an annual output of 6 million semi-steel radial tires; In March 2024, the company plans to invest in the construction of a project with an annual output of 3.6 million radial tires and 37,000 tons of off-road tires in Indonesia.

In 2023, the output of Sailun tires will be 58,635,400, a year-on-year increase of 35.71%; The sales volume of tires was 55.7863 million, a year-on-year increase of 27.07%. In the same period, the company's export revenue reached 19.26 billion yuan, accounting for 74.16%; Domestic sales revenue reached 6.298 billion yuan, accounting for 24.24%.

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