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Ceat Launches New Website

Indian tyre manufacturer Ceat has launched an all new website, www.ceatyres.com. The company’s new web presence comes less than a month after the launch of Ceat’s new and fresh corporate logo, the first redesign in half a century.

Upon launching the logo, company CEO Paras K Chowdhary said “the shift to a new logo and a new look symbolises the strategic transformation of Ceat…..The overall design more accurately represents the company’s vision of leading the industry in delivering best-in-class products, innovation and services to customers.”

The website features information about the company, the product range, along with tyre maintenance and information pages.

14th May 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Kelani Tyres’ Share Price Up 30%, Profits Double

Sri Lanka-based manufacturer Kelani Tyres PLC has recently witnessed its share price jump up 30 per cent. Speaking to local newspapers Managing Director Rohan Fernando said apart from the company’s strong performance in the last quarter, he is “unaware of any reason” for this. for share prices to increase except for the high performance of the company in the last quarter. However, he did concede that the stock jump was “an unusual increase in the price of shares traded.”

30th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Ceat to Reduce Mumbai Workforce by 25%

India’s Ceat Ltd is said to be reducing the 2,000 strong workforce at its facility in Bhandup, Mumbai by as much as a quarter in order to reduce costs. This plant will also soon be relocated to the city of Ambernath, and before this takes place Ceat intends to offer voluntary redundancy to employees over the age of 56. The hiring of new workers at the Bhandup facility has not taken place for about two years.

“We can save costs by relocating to Ambernath,” said Ceat managing director Paras Chowdhary. “The company will also unlock value by selling the 23 acres of Bhandup land. The money will be invested in funding our expansion plans. He added that the company will save Rs170 million (£2.13 million) in local taxes by relocating in addition to lowering operating costs.

28th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Tyre Majors Face Cartel Investigation

India’s government has asked the national fair trade regulator MRTP Commission – a quasi-judicial tribunal established to investigate monopolistic, restrictive and unfair trade practices – to look into suspected cartel-like behaviour amongst India’s major tyre manufacturers. On April 16 the commission’s investigative division issued notices to five leading tyre makers who, combined, control more than 80 per cent of the Indian market: The five include MRF, who alone controls 24 per cent, Apollo (22 per cent), JK Tyres (17 per cent), Ceat (14 per cent) and Goodyear (6 per cent).

18th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bearcat Tyres to Distribute Duratough Brand in Australia

Australian industrial tyre supplier Bearcat Tyres has been appointed national distributor of Duratough tyres. The full Duratough OTR tyre range covers earthmoving, heavy lifting, construction and mining applications, and the company is said to have recently released numerous new sizes and new ranges following extensive testing in the USA.

Duratough OTR radials incorporate fine steel cord from Bekaert in Belgium and Kiswire in South Korea, rubber solely from Malaysia and carbon from Carbot in the USA. The manufacturer comments that its products are designed not only for initial long wear, but also for retreading, so as to expand their full working life.

17th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Truck and Bus Tyre Exports Growing

Data released by India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association indicates that exports of bus and truck tyres from this country increased 8.9 per cent between April 2007 and January 2008, with a total figure of 2.07 million units sold in this period. Total revenue from exports also grew during this period, by 4.6 per cent to Rs 17.35 billion (£218.4 million).

8th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian MD Warns Of Falling Margins

Unless there is a dramatic revision in prices of crude oil and natural rubber, margins for tyre manufacturing sector may decrease in 2008-09, according to Mr Paras Chowdhary, Managing Director of Indian manufacturer Ceat Ltd.

17th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Ceat to Invest Almost £100M in New Facilities

The managing director of Ceat Ltd took the opportunity to elaborate upon his company’s plans for a new radial project and OTR facility during a press conference in the Indian city of Mumbai. Mr. Paras K Chowdhary said Ceat will invest a total of 8 billion rupees (£98.4 million) in the greenfield projects – 5 billion (£61.5 million) in the radial project and the remainder in the OTR plant, which will be located in the western Indian state of Maharastra. About 1.2 billion rupees (£14.8) from the sale of Ceat land in Mumbai will be used to fund the projects.

12th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Tyre Companies to Cut Prices from 1 March

Some of India’s leading tyre manufacturers including MRF and Ceat will cut prices by between 1 and 2 per cent. According to local news sources, the news follows a proposal from India’s finance minister to introduce a two percentage point cut in duty as part of the 2008/09 budget in order to boost manufacturing. As a result, Indian manufacturers are queuing up to be seen to pass on the benefit to their customers.

“We will be passing on the entire duty cut,” K.J. Rao Chief Financial Officer at Ceat was quoted as saying. Koshy Verghese, MRF’s executive vice president commented also gave details of a 1 per cent-plus price cut on its truck products. In 2007 MRF Ltd. was reportedly the Indian market leader (22% market share;) followed closely by Apollo Tyres Ltd. (21%); JK Tyre & Industries Ltd (18%); and Ceat Ltd. (13%).

29th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyre Majors Show Interest in India Production

A number of global tyre majors are making their presence felt in India’s tyre market, a market valued by the Business Standard financial newspaper at Rs 190 billion (£2.44 billion). Industry experts report that Michelin, Pirelli and Yokohama have the setting up of local production in their sights, and Bridgestone intends to further its presence in India.

The global number one player already holds the largest share in this market’s PCR segment, and it intends to boost this through a capacity increase at its facility in the central state of Madhya Pradesh to 11,000 units a day. At present Bridgestone supplies the TBR market with tyres manufactured in Thailand, however the company intends to invest around £100 million in a greenfield truck and bus tyre facility somewhere in India.

18th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Ceat Still Confident of Attracting Partners

Much was said during the course of 2007 about Ceat’s plans for new greenfield facilities, particularly the company’s unsuccessful attempts to secure a joint venture partner for a truck and bus radial plant. The new year sees this pattern continue, and on February 8 India’s Hindu Business Line reported that the company is seeking “international players” as equity partners in two new greenfield projects.

Vice-president for Sales & Marketing, Arnab Banerjee, told the paper that Ceat is in talks with several such companies, and as part of the deal the Indian manufacturer would hold a majority share in any venture. “We should be able to finalise the partners soon. The production should start within a couple of years,” he said.

12th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Sri Lankan Manufacturers Fight Back Against Imports

The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) has announced it will establish two new tyre manufacturing facilities to provide the 14,000 tyres needed for its buses every month while its Ampara tyre factory is being refurbished. The new plants will be located in Matale and Ekala, and SLTB expects to manufacture between 10,000 and 12,000 tyres annually when the first stage of work is complete.

The SLTB’s decision to produce its own tyres rather than import them is perhaps best understood by looking at Sri Lanka’s customs regulations. The SLTB spends Rs 65 million (£308,000) per year on tyre purchases, and each tyre brought into Sri Lanka from overseas is now subject to a tax of Rs 80 (£0.37) per kilogram or 28 per cent of the tyre’s invoiced value, whichever is higher. Assuming a weight of 70 kilograms per tyre, tyre tax, were all tyres to be sourced from overseas, would amount to £62,000. This equates to 20 per cent of total cost.

21st January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Ceat Tyres Implements SAP platform

According to a report in India’s Business Standard, Ceat Tyres has recently automated its business processes on the Software Application Protocol (SAP) platform. The SAP implementation covers the company’s entire office network, consisting of corporate office, two manufacturing plants, 34 regional offices, 28 RDCs, 125 clearing and forwarding agents, 3,500 dealers, a warehouse, 15 outsourcing locations, 8 RPD & Mixing locations.

Unlike most companies, who phase in new IT systems in stages, Ceat has opted to have all modules in its 180 plus locations go live at the same time. Ceat Tyres vice-president Arnab Banerjee explains the reason behind this decision: “If we look at the industry, most of our peers have used a phased approach. We were advised to follow it too. However, in this kind of implementation there is resistance to change and opposition to new systems and processes. So, we thought that instead of going through these issues in phases, let’s take the problem head-on and implement it in one go.” The project was implemented within a timeframe of eight months.

8th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Double Digit Growth For Indian Tyre Industry?

A Study by the Indian credit agency Credit Analysis & Research (CARE) Ltd. expects the Indian tyre industry to register a tonnage growth of 9-10 per cent in the next five years to the end of 2012, say reports. Truck and bus and LCV tyre categories are expected to record increases of 8 per cent and 14 per cent respectively during this period.

According to CARE, in 2007 the Indian tyre industry produced 73.6 million units, or 1.1 million tons, earning Rs 190 billion (3.280 billion euros) last year. MRF Ltd. was the market leader (22 per cent market share), followed closely by Apollo Tyres Ltd. (21 per cent), with JK Tyres & Industries Ltd. (18 per cent) and Ceat Ltd. (13 per cent).

8th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Manufacturers Expanding TBR, OTR Production

JK Tyre, India’s first TBR manufacturer, has responded to moves from other manufacturers to join this sector by boosting capacity at its facility in Mysore, southwest India, from 370,000 to 500,000 tyres per year, a target that will be met in 2009. Competition in this market sector is heating up in India: Apollo has already established a pilot TBR facility and during the coming quarter will consider the viability of further expansion. Ceat, who currently sources its TBR tyres from Pirelli factories and from manufacturers in China, have in recent months sought international technical assistance for the establishment of a domestic greenfield factory. According to the Hindu Business Line newspaper proposals for this project may be finalised in the next quarter. The paper adds that MRF has also announced plans to set up a TBR capacity.

7th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors