India
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.
Although the Indian tyre market is mainly characterised by its strong growth, it still is a market that is relatively self-sufficient. India still imports tyres, and the volume of imports is forever growing. Nevertheless, the import market still accounts for less than three per cent of the total, although decreasing tariffs and duties over the coming years will certainly facilitate tyre imports. But the question remains why Goodyear and Bridgestone remain the only foreign tyre manufacturers to have established their own production base in India – despite all the talk about how important the Indian market, as part of the so-called emerging BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India and China), is considered to be.
(Akron/Tire Review) India’s Apollo Tyres Ltd. unveiled the first of its new Indian made Regal brand radial truck and bus tyres. The line was launched with the Regal Transport RS (steer axle) and the Regal Transport RD (drive axle) at the Bus World exposition taking place in Mumbai, India.
JK Industries Ltd. plans to invest up to 1.2 billion rupees (£13.9 million) doubling production of OTR tyres over the next 18 months, according a senior official from the company. This decision is a logical one for the tyremaker, owing to the fact that the net profit margin for the OTR segment is 6 per cent, nearly three times that of truck and passenger car tyres.
Ceat Limited has outlined a £76 million capital expenditure plan spread over the next three years. The plan includes setting up of two greenfield plants, one for radials and the other for speciality tyres. This is a more ambitious plan than previously reported, as the company was expected to establish a single plant where all the above-mentioned activities would take place.
Former Balkrishna Industries Ltd. executive director Yogeshkumar (Yogesh) Mahansaria and his brother Ashokkumar have reportedly quit the fast-growing Indian tyre producer, citing “family differences” as the reason. Yogesh has now teamed up with US equity firm Warburg Pincus to acquire Israel’s Alliance Tire for US$45 million. Alliance has been in negotiations with the two buyers, and the transaction is expected to be completed before June. The Alliance purchase forms part of a new venture that Yogesh Mahansaria has been quoted as saying he intends to float in the near future.
Research analysts in India have given Apollo Tyres their stamp of approval as a good investment due to the tyremaker’s focus on product development, expansion plans and increasing international presence.
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