From July 11 to 13, 2011, Chief Li Hongliang from Energy Saving and Comprehensive Utilization Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology led a group of people to Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia to investigate the comprehensive utilization of junked tires. Also joined the group were President Zhu Jun & Executive Vice President Cheng Yuan from China Tyre Retreading and Recycling Association, Deputy General Manager Qu Wei from Sailun Co. , Ltd., Chairman Gu Jinshan from Longband (Qingdao) Retread Technology Co.,Ltd. and Shanghai Kimkey Environmental S&T Co., Ltd., etc.

Hulun Buir Economic and Information Technology Commission paid much attention to this research. Director Chen Fu & Deputy Director Song Changqi personally arranged the investigation plan and delegated Section Chief Bao Yiqing to accompany.

The group visisted Hulun Buir Dongming Mining Co., Ltd., Shenhua Baori Open-pit Mine, Zhani River Open-pit Mine, China Huaneng Yimin Coal and Electricity Co., Ltd., and respectively learned about the using,management and maintenance of mining-use transport vehicle tires and OTR tires. Basic situations of 4 mines are: Dongming Mining Co., Ltd. started operation in 2004 with a design production capacity of 600 thousand tons/year and approx. 300 mining-use vehicles; Shenhua Baori Open-pit Mine started operation in 1998 with an original design production capacity of 600 thousand tons/year, and in 2002 its production capacity was extended to 1.8 million tons/year with approx. 600 vehicles in use; Zhani River Open-pit Mine started operation in April, 2010 with a design production capacity of 6 million tons/year and approx. 600 vehicles in use; Yimin Open-pit Mine started operation in 1982 with a current production capacity of 15 million tons/year, it has built a dedicated coal transmission system and owns mainly large engineering vehicles with approx. 60 vehicles in use. Sizes of tires used by vehicles of the 4 open-pit mines are mostly 12.00 to 14.00 and there is also a certain number of larger engineering vehicles with a load capacity of more than 100 tons.

The research group preliminarily estimated the number of various types of vehicles used by 4 open-pit mines, and the number of in-use vehicles is approx.1780. According to the mines, the soil texture of Hulun Buir is preferable so the wear period of tires is relatively long. Tires need to be replaced three times every two years, which means the number of tires to be used by current in-use vehicles of the 4 open-pit mines is 25500, with a weight of approx. 2550 tons.

Hulun Buir currently has no standardized tire retreading and recycling enterprise, only very few mines outsource the job of tire maintrenance to inland professional companies. Tires used by most mines are “one-time thing”, they are junked once the service life is done and are took over and sent to three provinces in the northeast of China or inside the pass provinces by individual businesses. Due to the brand dedicated tire source supply shortage, stagnation of vehicles to wait for replacement tires happen occasionally. Main causes of this problem are as follows. Firstly, users have mistaken ideas for retreaded tires. Most vehicle regulators and users are not familiar with retreaded tires and think that use of retreaded tires can not be guaranteed. Secondly, since there is no standardized local enterprise for old tire retreading, most tires can not be timly retreaded before wear limit. One-time tires are not conducive to the minimizing and recycling. Thirdly, since there is no local enterprise for junked tire processing, the junked tires are stored in the open air, which can cause environmental pollution, or bargain purchased and sent to three provinces in the northeast of China then to inside the pass provinces by individual businesses, which not only pushed up the price of junked tires but also resulted in wasting of limited transportation and highway & road resources.

Hulun Buir Economic and Information Technology Commission makes much account of the comprehensive utilization of junked tires. It takes the initiative to report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and asks for instructions.

Due to time constraints and dispersed open-pit mines, the group only visited 4 open-pit mines, so the investigation is limited by these conditions. In the future, cooperation with Hulun Buir Economic and Information Technology Commission is required to look deep into the number and use conditions of mining-use vehicles in the region and put forward feasible comprehensive treatment scheme.