Beijing Auto ready for Apollo Tyres joint venture, say local reports

Chinese car manufacturer, Beijing Auto Group is “poised” to sign a tyre production joint venture with India’s Apollo Tyres, according to local news sources. Livemint.com cited Beijing Auto chairman Xu Heyi as saying the proposed venture would have an annual production capacity of about one million tyres. The factory will reportedly be built in the city of Huanghua in Hebei, near Beijing.

Tyres & Accessories has sought comment from Apollo on the matter, but so far there has been no answer. However, it is worth pointing out that that the company’s former chief financial officer, Sunam Sarkar, took on a new Singapore-based role at the end of 2014. Now “chief business officer”, Sarkar’s remit has been broadened to include a range of responsibilities including “greater china operations”.

Bloomberg intelligence put the Chinese annual tyre production total at 941.2 million units in 2014.