CORRECTED - CORRECTED-FACTBOX-Facts on China tyre maker Hangzhou Zhongce
(Corrects paragraph 8 to clarify legal case)
June 27 (Reuters) - Following are some facts about Chinese tyre maker Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd., which has rebuffed U.S. claims that its tyres are unsafe.
On Tuesday, a New Jersey distributor accused Zhongce of supplying defective tyres. Zhongce says it checks every batch and assures customers its products are reliable.
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Led by Shanghai-listed Giti Tire Corp. (600182.SS), China has rapidly become a cheap source of tyres globally -- both the international brands favoured by multinational auto makers and the cheaper tyres that consumers buy when the originals wear out.
But concerns over tyre safety have helped top European, Japanese and U.S. brands hold on to market share, despite competition from Chinese and East European manufacturers.
* Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd. was founded in 1958 during the Great Leap Forward and is now China's second-largest producer among 500 companies that crank out 235 million radial tyres a year.
* Zhongce has the capacity to make 23 million Chaoyang, Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS tyres annually and hopes to become the world's 10th-largest tyre supplier by 2010.
* Tread separation on a Zhongce tire contributed to a fatal van crash in Pennsylvania, victims' lawyers argued in a suit against the distributor, Foreign Tire Sales, that in turn spurred FTS to sue Zhongce last month.
* In 2003, Zhongce sealed a deal with U.S. manufacturer Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. (CTB.N) to make 250,000-350,000 radial medium-truck tires a year. That deal ended last year.
* Apart from semi-steel radial tyres, Zhongce also makes bicycle tyres, conveyor belts and rubber hoses, according to its Web site.
