Belshina (Belarusian: Белшына, Russian: Белшина) is a tyre manufacturer in Belarus. The name is an abbreviation for "Belaruskaya shina", or "Belarusian Tyre".
The construction of the Belarusian Tyre Works "Belshina" in Bobruisk was sanctioned by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR #299 dated March 25, 1963 "On steps aimed at better utilization of workforce of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic" and by resolution No. 90-p dated June 11, 1965, by Supreme Soviet.[2] On December 31, 1971, the research facility of the mechanical services unit produced the first Belarusian tyre for BelAZ mining truck of 27-ton lifting capacity.[citation needed]
On December 31, 1972, the farm tyre plant was put into service. Truck and car tyre plant began to roll out tyres on September 30, 1976. On January 31, 1985, a fourth plant joined Belshina family, it was the earthmover tyre plant. In May 1992 the State Committee on Industry of the Republic of Belarus issued a decree transforming the Belshina Production Amalgamation into Belarus Tyre Works Belshina. On September 26, 2002, the Executive Committee of Mogilev Province adopted resolution No.18-13 on registering an open joint stock company Belshina (Certificate of Registration No.700016217 of 2003-09-27).
On April 13, 2011, Belshina Radial for bus and truck got Standard Nasional Indonesia (SNI) - Indonesia National Standard which Indonesia is not produce the items.
2010. The 100 millionth tyre for passenger cars was assembled and vulcanized.
2013. The development and production of new tyre lines Artmotion (tyes for passenger cars), Escortera (tyres for trucks and buses), Bravado (tyres for light trucks and vans) has started.
2014. Serial production of new tyres under the brands Artmotion Spike (studded tyres for passenger cars), Astarta (tyres for crossovers and SUVs) and Forcerra (tyres for dump trucks) has begun.
2014. The first 18-inch passenger car tyres were manufactured.
2015. The first tyres for the factory equipment of Geely cars were developed (Bel-295 model, size 225/65 R17).
2016. The first radial tubeless tyre of size 40.00R57 was released (model Bel-350).
2017. The first Belarusian radial tubeless tyre 59/80R63 with a career tread pattern, model Bel-190, was introduced. This is the largest tyre that is produced in the world today. Its height is more than 4 m, the tread width is 1.47 m, and the weight is 5.7 tons. Only Bridgestone, Michelin, Titan Tire produced tyres of this size before Belshina.
2018. An experimental batch of 59/80R63 super-large radial tyres was sent to Russia for testing in a quarry. The tyres were tested on a 450-ton BelAZ-75710 dump truck.
2022. The first passenger tyres with a 19-inch rim were released (Astarta SUV Bel-340 model, size 255/55 R19).
In 2020, several hundreds workers of Belshina have joined mass nationwide protests against the authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko after a rigged presidential election. A strike with political demands was declared but never started as Belshina's management executed pressure on the company's workers. Several striking workers were fired.[4][5][6]
The sanctions against Belshina and other Belneftekhim companies were temporarily suspended in 2015.[8][9][10]
In April 2021, full-scale sanctions against Belshina were renewed following brutal political repressions against the opposition after another rigged presidential election that took place in August 2020 and was accompanied by mass protests across Belarus.[11][12][13] On 9 August 2021, the US has added Belshina CEO Andrei Bunakov to the SDN list.[14]
On 2 December 2021, Belshina was added to the sanctions list of the European Union.[15] Switzerland joined the EU sanctions on 20 December.[16]
In 2022, Japan and Ukraine also imposed sanctions on Belshina.[17]
In March 2024, the General Court of the European Union granted Belshina's annulment application from the EU sanctions list. According to the court, Belshina was loss-making by the time the EU sanctions were imposed, and thus not a “substantial source of income” for the Lukashenko regime, while the European Council failed to show that dismissal of the Belshyna employees was for political reasons (officially, the participants of the strike were fired for being absent from work).[18]
