Greater Commercial Vehicle Focus – Bridgestone India

Bridgestone India intends to increase its production capacity by 1,000 tyres a day to a daily capacity of 11,00 tyres at its plant in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and is gearing up to cater for the commercial vehicle market to a greater extent.

Bridgestone India’s managing director Hisao Ikawa stated the company has “entered the commercial vehicle tyre segment in India by launching our products in select Southern markets to begin with, and would want to establish our product across the country this year.”

When asked if Bridgestone has any plans to set up a new greenfield facility for producing commercial tyres to replace those at present being imported, Ikawa said, “We currently are importing the tyres from Thailand and will continue to do so. We may look at a new factory after some time, but nothing has been decided yet.”

However it has also been reported that the company has plans to establish such a facility during the next three years. While talking on the sidelines of a press meeting, Ikawa reportedly said “Although setting up a new facility is always a costly affair, also involving a timeframe of two-three years for the unit to be up and operational, it is a matter of time before we come out with such plans. Depending on the demand, the decision on it will be taken this year.”