BKT to Establish New Facility, Increase Capacity

Balkrishna Tyres is reported to be planning a new facility within the Special Economic Zone in Gujarat, northwest India. An investment of Rs 5 billion (£64.7 million) will go into the facility over a three-year period starting in the 2009 financial year, with the completed plant expected to have an annual output of 75,000 tonnes. The company’s head of finance, B K Bansal, told local media “we are analysing two to three Special Economic Zones in Gujarat and are in talks for acquisition of land, though nothing has been finalised as yet.”

A further Rs 1.4 billion (£18.1 million) is being directed towards expanding the manufacturer’s total production capacity from 100,000 to 129,000 tonnes per annum by March this year. Plans are also afoot to register the BKT Chopanki facility as an export-oriented unit (EOU) in order to make the plant eligible for tax and excise benefits, a move anticipated to reduce the company’s tax expenditure by Rs 200 million (£2.6 million) in the 2009 financial year. “Our Chopanki unit will be converted into an EOU, hopefully in next two weeks,” commented Bansal.