BEIJING—Beijing Capital Tire Co. Ltd., producer of the BCT, Jinglun and Autoguard brands, declared bankruptcy in October, a Chinese industry official has confirmed.
According to Chinese media reports dated June 25 and Nov. 16, BCT had suspended production since early 2015 and started laying off 1,000 employees, or half of its total staff, about six months ago.
BCT, an affiliate of state-owned conglomerate Beijing Capital Group in Beijing, reports having annual capacity of 7.1 million radial car, light truck and medium truck tires at two factories in the Beijing area. The company dates to 1970, originally under the name Beijing Tire Factory; it was reorganized in 1999 as BCT.
China's corporate bankruptcy law declares that if a bankruptcy application is accepted the court will designate an administrator—either a task force, a law firm/agency or an individual—who would be in charge of the process, according to a translation of the law.
Thereafter the company could either request for a restructuring period with plans to bring itself back, or try to settle with its creditors, or declare bankruptcy and liquidate assets.
It's not clear at this time which option BCT is pursuing.
Beijing Capital Group describes itself as a large-scale state-owned enterprise under the State Owned Assets Supervision and Administrative Commission (SASAC) of the Beijing Municipal Government. It operates in three core business sectors: financial services and investments; urban infrastructure development; and real estate.
Tire Group International Inc. of Miami was a distributor of BCT's Autoguard line in the past, but TGI said it hasn't handled any BCT brands for the past couple of years due to a lack of supply.