JK Commissions ‘India’s First Radial Truck Tyre Plant’
JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., maker of JK Tyre, Vikrant and Tornel, today (30 October) inaugurated what is reputed to be the country’s first radial truck and bus tyre manufacturing plant. The project doubles the radial tyre capacity at JK’s Mysore site from 400,000 to 800,000 a year, at a cost of 3.15 billion rupees (£40.445 million; 45 million euros; US$67 million). A further expansion of OTR capacity in Mysore, involving an investment of 1.2 billion rupees (£15.395 million; 17.178 million euros; US$25.484 million) is scheduled for completion in early 2010.
JK Tyre now has four plants located in India (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka) and three around Mexico City. In Mysore itself, JK Tyre has spent more than 9 billion rupees (£115.479; 127.875 million euros; US$191.176 million) since 1997 in increasing capacity and modernization.
Marking the plant’s commissioning: Shri. H.S. Singhania, chairman, JK Organisation, said: “The company started manufacturing tyres in 1977, with a capacity of 500,000 tyres per annum and has grown multifold over the years to its present capacity of 15,800,000 tyres per annum, along with Tornel, a leading tyre manufacturer in Mexico.”
Dr. R. P. Singhania, vice chairman and managing director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., added: “Today, we have seven modern tyre production facilities across the world, with an annual turnover of around 48 billion rupees (£616.552 million; 687 million euros; US$1.019 billion). Furthermore, we source tyres internationally for our global markets, where, we have been able to establish, a foothold in 80 countries, across six continents.”
Rapid radialisation
According to Dr Singhania, radial technology is “the future in the developing countries” like India, a market which Dr Singhania says is fast radialising. Qualifying this he suggested the Indian market was considerably more radialised than previously thought: “the passenger car segment [is] 95 per cent radialised, LCV segment at 35 per cent, and the truck/bus [TBR] segment…10 per cent.” Previous estimates put the TBR segment at around 4 – 5 per cent. Furthermore, the pace of radialisation is said to be making rapid strides forward, with Dr Singhania predicting it will touch 25 per cent in five year. According to Singhania, JK Tyre produces 80 per cent of India’s total TBR output.
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