Foreign visitors take photos of rubber tires at the 15th China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire & Auto Accessory Exhibition in Dongying City, east China's Shandong Province, May 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

　　JINAN, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A decade ago, Algerian trader Ahmed Musa began sourcing tires from Guangrao, a county of only about half a million people in east China's Shandong Province.

　　“You'll get quality tires here at competitive prices. My clients now specifically request Guangrao tires,“ said Musa during the 15th China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire & Auto Accessory Exhibition, which concluded on Saturday.

　　The event attracted over 50 world's top 75 tire companies and Fortune 500 companies. All the world's top 10 tire manufacturers attended the exhibition.

　　Musa's company, Sarl Famo Pneumatique, sold 200 containers of nearly 300,000 Guangrao tires last year and plans to expand orders.

　　In the mid-1990s, Guangrao, located adjacent to China's second-largest oilfield, Shengli Oilfield, had already established itself as the country's biggest hose production base. As the hose market approached saturation, some local manufacturers began trial production of vehicle tires.

　　With an annual output of 177 million radial tires and exports reaching 86.6 percent of production, Guangrao is home to China's largest rubber tire industrial cluster, according to Sun Xiaohua, director of the local industry and information technology bureau. The county's 25.95-billion-yuan (about 3.6 billion U.S. dollars) export revenue in 2024 underscored its dominance -- even as it quietly reshapes industry dynamics.