Official opening of Ceat JV plant draws near

The latest joint venture plant set up by India’s RPG Group and Sri Lanka’s Kelani Tyre will officially open next week, states Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror. The publication says the Rs 600 million (£2.7 million) passenger car tyre radial factory, which is located at the existing Ceat Kelani site in Kelaniya, will enable the joint venture operation to increase its radial capacity by 70 per cent to 39,000 tyres a month.

In its reportage of the plant’s upcoming opening, the Daily Mirror describes Ceat Kelani as the “market leader in Sri Lanka in both the radial and commercial tyre segments” and states that the Ceat brand has accounted for nearly 50 percent of the country’s tyre requirements since the second quarter of 2013-14. The brand currently holds a 57 per cent share of Sri Lanka’s light commercial vehicle and truck market, 32 per cent of the radial market, 46 per cent of the three-wheeler market, 19 per cent of the motorcycle market and 73 per cent of the agricultural market.