Tatneft, Nizhnekamskshina report slight rise in tyre production volumes

At its annual general meeting of shareholders this month, Russian corporation PJSC Tatneft reported that its various tyre making operations produced a total of 12 million tyres in 2015, including 875,000 solid steel cord tyres. In 2014 the company manufactured 11.64 million tyres, including 745,090 solid steel cord tyres.

Tatneft’s production of new tyres is carried out by three manufacturing subsidiaries: Nizhnekamskshina, the Nizhnekamsk Truck Tire Factory and the Nizhnekamsk SSC (solid steel cord) Tire Factory. The first of these held its own annual general meeting earlier in the month, at which executive director Radiy Burganov reported the production of 9,268,701 passenger car and light truck tyres in 2015, a 3.4 per cent increase of the previous year. Burganov claims this figure represents 20.3 per cent of all car and light truck tyre production in Russia, including that from foreign manufacturers with facilities within the country. Kama Trading House, the Tatneft company responsible for delivering tyres to wholesalers and OEM customers in Russia and abroad, exported 1,833,000 Nizhnekamskshina tyres during the course of 2015.

Burganov states that a priority for Nizhnekamskshina is to expand its product portfolio, which now includes three brands – the budget segment Kama range, Kama Euro for the mid-segment and Viatti for the premium segment. The Nizhnekamskshina plant started producing 33 new sizes and models of passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres in 2015. The executive director adds that investment from parent company Tatneft is facilitating the aim of further modernising and automating the factory in order to increase production volumes and improve product quality. A large proportion of the investments made last year were for updating key technological equipment.

According to Burganov, PJSC Nizhnekamskshina spent a total of 177.6 million roubles (£2.0 million) on environmental activities last year. An inspection audit for compliance with the environmental management system GOST R ISO 14001-2007 requirements (ISO 14001:2004) was successfully completed.