Apollo to Boost International Capacity

An anticipated increase in demand within Africa and the expectation of growing OE sales in Europe have led Apollo Tyres to plan capacity increases in these two regions. The Wall Street Journal reports the company’s South African activities involve the investment of US$30 million this year at its two Dunlop facilities there in order to boost passenger car radial capacity from 10,000 units per day to 12,500, while truck and bus tyre capacity is to be lifted from the current daily level of 800 units to between 1,200 and 1,500 tyres.

“Our South African operations have been expanding and have grown between 12 per cent and 14 per cent over the last few years,” said Apollo Tyres managing director Neeraj Kanwar. “This growth has been achieved even though we were not operating our plants at full capacity due to the economic slowdown.”