Chinese suppliers discard asbestos for more export

Shanghai, August 6 (Gasgoo.com)--Chinese automotive suppliers are speeding on a non-asbestos road as they seek for more export and the relevant mandates get harsh.

According to the China Friction & Sealing Material Association, in 2007, the asbestos-free friction products comprised 65.5% of the total friction products, while 26.3% of the sealing materials are asbestos-free. As China becomes the world's leading automobile market, automakers and suppliers are speeding up to discard the asbestos-contained products.

"We started our brake pad manufacturing business in 1991. From the very beginning, we produced semi-metallic brake pad products as our technology was introduced from North America and we haven't produced even one single asbestos brake pad," said Wang Guangxing, board member and assistant chief engineer of Shandong Gold Phoenix Group Corporation, the largest manufacturer of automotive brake pads in China.

Wang said that the "LPB" branded brake pads were exported to many overseas markets. "We offered semi-metallic products for the N. American market, Non-asbestos organic (NAO) and ceramic ones for Japanese markets, while low-metallic ones for the European markets," he explained that Gold Phoenix has launched its third-generation low-metallic, NAO and premium ceramic brake pads.

Non-asbestos brake pads by Gold Phoenix (Left), and non-asbestos gaskets by Teamful (Right).

In the year 2002, many Chinese manufacturers of friction-material products invested heavily in technological innovation or introduction before the GB12676-1999 stipulation which ban asbestos in the brake linings came into effect on Oct.1, 2003. Now automobiles in China are using asbestos-free brakes, except only very few of the heavy duty commercial vehicles.

Besides the braking products, asbestos was widely used in the sealing materials in the vehicles. But now many Chinese suppliers are shifting their business.

"Construction of our new production base will be completed by the end of 2008, and the annual production capacity will increase from the current 300 tons to 3000 tons of non-asbestos sealing materials. Also the output of non-asbestos sealing gaskets could reach 8 million sets each year," said Ye ZhaoHui, executive vice general manager of Chengdu Teamful Gasket Co, a leading sealing gasket manufacturer in China.

Ye said his company started the research and development of non-asbestos products in 2006, and the new products have got certification from the European and American testing bodies.

"As more and more foreign countries ban asbestos products due to the asbestos contamination episodes, China's automotiv industry has begun to follow the international standartds, though asbestos could be safely used with proper protection measures," said an expert with years of working experience in China's asbestos-mining industry, who insisted to be unnamed.