India
Apollo Tyres is considering sourcing OTR tyres from its acquired South African production facilities in order to meet increased demand from the construction and mining sectors. These tyres will most likely come from the 252,000 sq ft Dunlop plant in Durban, which Apollo acquired in April 2006 along with another facility in South Africa and two in Zimbabwe. Ten thousand tyres are produced every day at the Durban site.
With Brityrex International 2007 only a matter of weeks away, the show continues to attract exhibitors from a wide range of tyre and aftermarket sectors. Says Paul Farrant, managing director of the organisers ECI International: “When we began marketing the show, we deliberately targeted other aftermarket sectors as well as the tyre industry with a dedicated marketing and PR campaign. The result is a broader than ever exhibitor base, reflecting the wider range of services on offer today from garages and fast-fits as they concentrate on customer retention.”
Indian tyre major MRF has raised the prices of truck tyres and some other tyre sizes in an attempt to offset the impact of high rubber prices, but a senior company official has indicated that this increase is still not sufficient. Prices will rise by one per cent, but the company reportedly may again increase prices at the end of February, following the presentation of India’s federal budget.
An inventor in India has come up with a novel alternative to run flat tyre technology. Designed for motor scooters and cycles, the new invention, known as the modular portable castor wheel stand or, more simply, as the ‘X Wheel’, makes it easier for riders to keep their vehicle moving in the event of a sudden puncture.
Bridgestone India intends to increase its production capacity by 1,000 tyres a day to a daily capacity of 11,00 tyres at its plant in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and is gearing up to cater for the commercial vehicle market to a greater extent.
As the 51/49 per cent joint venture between Michelin and Apollo Tyres has failed to materialise, the French tyremaker now plans to establish its own truck and bus radial manufacturing facility in the Indian city of Pune.
Apollo Tyres is reportedly planning to open a retreading tyre plant in Haryana, India. The company will invest 50 million rupees in the satellite plant, according to Business Line. Apollo intends to have 2-3 such satellite plants strategically located in the country. The company has invested in imported machinery for the new plant though it will run a retreading process that was designed in-house.
(Rubber Asia, Kerala, India) Rubber products are important to automobiles because they perform certain key functions better than any other known materials – functions that cannot be done by any material other than elastomers.
Since the “Dunlop Rubber Company (India)” was registered in 1926 as the first tyre manufacturer in India – when the country was still a British crown colony – the local tyre market has developed into an important but at the same time somewhat backward market. The sheer size of the market makes it internationally important, but Indian products are rarely sold in the most advanced Western markets. However, in the recent past some manufacturers have invested and continue to invest strongly into new technology in order to tackle problems such as low margins, growing competition from Western companies coming to India and increasing imports from low-cost countries such as China. This process of international adaptation and adjustment on the part of Indian tyre makers has already begun to bear fruit. Nevertheless, the Indian tyre market remains what it always has been: an almost completely closed market and an oligopoly whose future direction is difficult to foresee.
India’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, Birla Tyres suffered a fire at its plant in Orissa’s Balasore district on Saturday 3 February, causing damage to its chemical stocks. The fire was attributed to a possible short circuit, which engulfed the dye unit of the plant.
According to local reports the fire was brought under control within three hours with the help of the fire brigade. Two fire tenders attended the scene while a fire engine belonging to the company was also pressed into service to control the flames.
(SA Treads, Douglasdale, South Africa) After months of discussion, planning and hard work, Tyrexpo Africa 2006 – the first dedicated tyre show in the country after more than a quarter of a century – has come and gone. And by all accounts it was a resounding success. The three-day exhibition was based at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg in September, where over 110 national and international exhibitors and wholesalers took part, including Bandag, Ceat, Continental, Leaderquip, Malas, Maxxis, Michelin, Silverstone, Stamford and Vipal.
MRF Ltd. has been India’s most important tyre manufacturer since the industry’s earliest days in the subcontinent. The company was founded in the city of Chennai, previously known as Madras – hence the abbreviation MRF, which is short for “Madras Rubber Factory”. Today the manufacturer can proudly look back at its 60 years of history, and also show pride in its current annual turnover of 42.5 billion rupees (£486 million). According to analysts, MRF today holds a 24 per cent slice of the Indian tyre market and is also very active in export business as well as motorsports. Company sources state that MRF currently exports its products to 75 countries.
Every year 4.3 million car and SUV tyres come out of Pirelli’s vast Carlisle factory located just south of the Cumbrian capital. Export markets take between 75 and 80 per cent of this number, and Pirelli’s Carlisle products also feature as OE equipment on some of the world’s most respected automotive brands. In a recent interview with the Cumberland News, Pirelli’s head of operations and Carlisle and Burton-on-Trent, Wolfgang Meier, spoke about the operation he overseas.
(Rubber Asian, Kerala, India) Pelican Rubber Pvt. Ltd., which began as a small-scale industry just a decade ago in 1996 for the manufacture of automobile butyl tubes, is today one of the most sought after brands across India and abroad.
(Rubber Asia, Kerala, India) The strides made by Mardec RK Latex Group ever since its humble beginning in the 1940s are a typical example of how passion and commitment to quality can take a business to great heights. The group, which started off with large rubber estates in Kerala, the home of Indian rubber, expanded into creamed and centrifuged latex in the 80s and early 90s to emerge as one of the largest processors of these products in India.
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