TURIN, Italy — Linglong Group Chairman and President Wang Feng told a group of suppliers and distributors recently that Linglong sees the need for greater cooperation and partnerships to address the "severe global political and economic situation" impacting the tire market.

Addressing a Dec. 7 meeting of strategic suppliers and distributors from around the world, Mr. Wang focused particularly on Linglong's plans to build a major tire manufacturing plant in Serbia.

In August, Linglong signed an agreement with the Serbian government to invest nearly $1 billion to build a plant in Serbia's Zrenjanin free trade zone with capacity to produce 13.6 million tires/year by 2025.

Linglong, which is pursuing a "5+3" strategy — five production plants at home and three overseas — opened its first overseas factory in Chonburi, Thailand, in 2014.

"With the development of the company's globalization and overseas manufacturing base, Linglong will need its partners' support in global stable supply and resource-sharing," the company said. 

Mr. Wang said he hoped that the global partners "could provide more new products as well as new technology for Linglong's research and development efforts."

The goal, he added, is to "improve the company's core technology and key technologies, promoting the upgrading of its industrial structure, brand promotion and global market share."

Mr. Wang went on to signal the need for a new "model of cooperation, which could improve product quality stability, production continuity and shorten the supply cycle."

Global partnerships, he said, also could help establish information-sharing and communication mechanisms to jointly address market challenges and improve market competitiveness.

The Linglong exec concluded by saying that Linglong "would closely follow the European market trend" and increase its efforts in the development of new products and new brands.