Keep Pace with the Development of Global Economy; Protect the Common Homeland of Mankind

Speech at 2012 Global Automotive and Tire Industry Forum & Business Summit

Ding Yuhua

April 11,2012·Beijing

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Good morning!

I'm very glad to be here in Beijing to welcome all the friends from all over the world. First of all, on behalf of Triangle Group, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all the distinguished leaders, guests and friends present here today. And I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing concern and support for Triangle Group.

My topic today is: Keep pace with the development of global economy; protect the common homeland of mankind.

In the past three years, UN held three Global Climate Conferences in Copenhagen, Cancun and Durban respectively. All countries have gradually reached a consensus on how to better deal with the relationship among economic development, energy resources, environment, society and humankind during the process of economic growth, energy conservation and emission reduction, low-carbon development. In face of the severe challenges of global economic crisis, all countries made greatest efforts and tried every means to realize economic recovery. At the same time, people are also deeply ware of their responsibility for the protection of global environment---the common homeland of mankind which is becoming an urgent and important issue day by day. 

   Two years have passed since the holding of "Sustainable Development of Tire Industry Global Summit" in Weihai on October, 2009. During these two years, the world is changing; China is changing and so is the automobile and tire industry. However, with the development of economy and society, the contradiction between the economy, energy resources and environment is becoming increasingly pronounced. People come to realize the urgency and severity of protecting the global environment.

Driven by the development of economic globalization, it is pressing for the automotive and tire industry to speed up the process of energy conservation and environment protection.

With the development of economic globalization, human society is increasingly worried about the energy and environmental crises which are becoming more terrible than the economic crisis. As we can see, for a long time, the energy crisis is entwined with the economic crisis. It produces a certain resistance or even worse to the development of global economy and social civilization while it happens each time. The problems caused by people's negligence of energy conservation and environmental protection, as a result, aggravates people's concern for the future economic and social development and even mankind's survival. 

The development of automotive industry is an important symbol for industrialization, and also an important component of social mass production and civilization progress (Currently, China has more than 100 million units of automobiles. Annual production exceeds 18 million units for two consecutive years, which means China has stepped into the auto society).In the context of economic globalization, energy conservation, safety and environmental protection have become the core of transformation of global automotive industry. Tires, as an important part of automobiles, account for 20% or more of the whole energy consumption (only lower than that of the engine). Apart from the engine, energy-efficient tires could bring more than 5% fuel-saving efficiency for the automobiles, which made the tires an important carrier for the innovation of automotive energy-saving and emission-reduction.

From November 1, 2012, in order to raise the access standards of tires; accelerate the development of green products and encourage the "green consumption", the developed countries and regions in the world started to implement the mandatory regulation that all the tires must be graded and classified in terms of fuel efficiency, energy saving ratio, noise and etc. China is also accelerating the draft of green manufacturing and consumption standards to promote the upgrading and innovation of tire products.

We may say that, after experiencing the test of economic crisis, the automotive and tire industry, as well as other manufacturing industries, is facing a new "turning point" and a challenging industrial upgrading situation. Basically speaking, this is people's new understanding of the relationship between the economic development and natural environment, between the human existence and natural environment. As Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned in the government report this year: We will show the world with our actions that China will never seek economic growth at the expense of its ecological environment and public health. We are definitely capable of taking a path of civilized development which ensures that production increases, people's living standards rise, and we live in a good ecological environment.

We shall actively carry out the construction of new productivity model and strive to build a green homeland.

The development of automotive and tire industry shall be themed by the development of material civilization, spiritual civilization and ecological civilization of human society. Triangle Group, as a member of the global tire industry, will coordinate our economic responsibility, social responsibility and environmental responsibility, march forward on the path of "low-carbon economy, green manufacturing" and build a new productivity model for the sustainable development of tire industry. The core tasks of Triangle Group are the following three points:

The protection of the earth --our "green homeland" shall be the prerequisite and foundation for our development strategies and decisions.

The basic environmental policy of Triangle Group is：protect the global environment; build a green homeland; implement clean production; save resources and energy. In the process of company's development, energy conservation and emission reduction have always been the "green light" project. Over the past five years, Triangle has invested more than 1.5 billion RMB in energy conserving technology. Energy utilization rate of Triangle maintains a 4% year on year increase. In 2011, the company shut down a production line that has a history of 34 years. Although the products made on this line still have certain market space and profitability, the company chose to build a new high-tech and low-carbon production line to replace the old one in order to realize energy conservation and emission reduction, and speed up technology upgrading and product updating. The new line has significant energy-saving effect which can save 15% energy and make full use of clean energy. At the mean time, we adopted digital technology, robotic operation technology and intelligent bar code technology in our manufacturing system, realized information-based centralized management and control in the overall process of manufacturing, inspection and logistics, and blazed a new trail in building "a green and intelligent factory". 

March into the future and promote industry upgrading and environmental and ecological civilization through technological innovation.

In order to solve the environmental problems in the process of development, we shall always rely on the technological innovation. In recent years, Triangle invested a large amount of funds in building two research platforms---the National Technical Development Center and the National Engineering Laboratory for Tire Design and Manufacturing Process. In 2011, The Company established a research center in America, and carried out research cooperation with the University of Akron in products R&D. Meanwhile, Triangle actively carried out strategic cooperation with Harbin Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Tianjin University, Beijing Rubber Industry Research Institute and Sinopec in the fields of new materials, new processes, new equipments, fundamental research of products and other key technologies.  

Guide development with standards; promote industrial development and environmental protection

Triangle Group, as director of Chinese Tire Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, director of China Rubber Industry Association Tire Division and director of National Tire & Rim Standardization Committee, always sticks to the guideline of reaching international standards. In recent years, the company participated in drafting 35 national standards. In 2011, the company, on behalf of tire companies in China, attended the WP29 held by UN in Geneva and participated in the draft of Global Tire Technology Regulations. At present, Triangle is planning to initiate "the industrialization of green tire" project with relevant institutes, draft new standards for tire performance, inspection and environmental protection. The company strives to continuously improve its products quality and environmental protection standard through establishing advanced technological threshold and access threshold.  

Keep pace with global economy; challenge the future; achieve a win-win situation

Dear friends, in the process of economic globalization, we are facing not only the challenges brought by economic crisis and environmental problems, but also the opportunities generated by technology development. Triangle Group always sticks to its mission of "Provide better products and services for our consumers; better protect the global environment; build a green homeland". We would like to face the challenges together with you, share the opportunities and achieve a win-win situation.

Firstly, commit ourselves to building a new economic model featured by green products, green manufacturing, green supply chain and green consumption. Try to realize a 15% year on year increase of energy utilization rate compared with that in 2010 through building green and industrialized production base, and implementing clean manufacturing. The company has already passed EU's REACH regulation, and will continue to develop new energy-saving and environment-friendly materials and advanced technologies in the field of tire materials; establish and initiate company's "green" supply chain system. The company will vigorously develop the "green products" defined by low energy consumption, low noise and high safety. On the basis of meeting the requirements of the laws and regulations of developed countries and regions, the company will establish an internal quality standard to ensure the green products of Triangle reaching an international standard. The company will strive to realize large scale development of circular economy, and actively advocate and implement the construction of the green chain of product and market service.

Secondly, speed up the building and application of new productivity generated by technological innovation, and provide better products for the global market. Currently, Triangle has obtained more than 200 achievements through independent innovation in the fields of product design, material mechanics, manufacturing process and equipment development. All these achievements were patented and successfully realized industrialization. Based on the achievements and by taking advantage of domestic and foreign research platforms, we will continue to carry out R&D in terms of composite materials application, mechanical simulation technology, high-tech products, products testing technology and integrated manufacturing system.

Thirdly, firmly pursue an open global talent strategy and build an international talent pool. In recent years, we have hired more than 50 experts and talents from all over the world, which further strengthened company's technology and management team. In the upcoming days, Triangle will continue to push forward the "going global" strategy in terms of technology, manufacturing, marketing and service, and strive to build a talent pool with international vision, better learning ability and implement ability. The building of talent pool will always be an important task for Triangle. We sincerely welcome more friends to participate in our course.

   Distinguished guests, dear friends, in the process of Triangle's development, many of our old friends have been marching forward with us, and more and more new friends come to join us. We together created new consumption values in the global market. Facing the opportunities and challenges of economic globalization, we sincerely hope and are fully confident that, together with you, we will share more success, happiness and progress in our cooperation and development. On this occasion of gathering together, once again, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and blessings to you. Wish you all enjoy your stay in Beijing!

！Thank you all.    
April 11, 2012