India
Mr Raghupati Singhania, vice chairman and managing director of JK Industries Limited has received an honorary doctorate in science at the seventeenth convocation of Mohanlal Sukhadia University at Udaipur by Her Excellency, Smt. Pratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan. The degree was conferred in recognition of Mr Singhania’s contributions towards encouraging education, training and research activities in Rubber and Allied industries in India.
Ceat Tyres plans to expand production capacity at its Nashik radial tyre plant. Managing director Paras K. Chowdhary told local newspapers: “The Nashik plant has a production capacity of 40,000 tyres per month, which would go up to 65,000 after expansion.” The company plans to raise to capacity to 100,000 PCR tyres per month six months after the first phase is complete.
Arguably the world’s largest tyre trade exhibition, Reifen Messe Essen 2006 was the biggest show in the history of the exhibition. The 24th show since the exhibition premiered in 1960, this year’s event attracted 17,100 tyre specialists (up 8 per cent) from over 80 countries, according to the organisers. In amongst the 473 suppliers (up 15 per cent) from 42 countries, a handful of UK wholesalers (Bond International, King’s Road Tyres, Kirkby Tyres, Treadsetters, and North West Tyres) led the way for the 22-strong British company contingent.
Since Elgitread (India) Ltd., the Indian supplier of retreading material, machinery, accessories and services, gained a new exclusive importer for the important German market (Hämmerling group), business in Europe is said to be getting better and better. Until four or five years ago Elgitread focussed most of its capacity on the development of the North and South American markets, explains K. Gopinath in an interview with Tyres & Accessories. Since then, Europe has reached a new position on top of the Elgitread agenda, the general manager responsible for international marketing continues.
This year’s Reifen Messe Essen saw Alliance Tire share its stand with exclusive German marketer, Bohnenkamp. With Alliance president Joseph Anglister leading the way, several of the specialist Israeli manufacturer’s managers were on hand to speak to visitors.
European sales and marketing manager, Rami Einav, confirms that the $85 million dollars the company has invested in recent years is now paying dividends, with Alliance becoming an attractive off-take partner for larger companies. This is particularly important when you consider that the company’s 900 highly productive employees work around the clock, 363/364 days a year.
A story in the Business Standard in India, and mentioned on this website yesterday, has provoked a reply from Mr. Sunam Sarkar Chief, Corporate Strategy & Marketing for Apollo Tyres. The headline was “Apollo Tyres to Stop Making Radials in India” and Mr. Sarkar has written to the publication, saying he was “quite disappointed” in the story, which he describes as “misleading in the way it represents the facts” and with a headline that is “completely erroneous.” Mr Sarkar goes on: “There is no plan to stop making radials in India, rather we are increasing capacity. The specific fact that we discussed was the possible sourcing of low volume products from our South African facilities, so that our plant in Baroda can produce more of the high volume sizes. “The quote that ‘Apollo currently manufactures 200 radial tyres a month’ is completely untrue. We are currently manufacturing more than 7,000 radials per day, with plans to increase to 10,000 radials per day very shortly. While it is correct that we are exploring the replacement of South African manufactured cross-ply tyres with Indian ones, the important aspect of that strategy that does not come through in the story is that this production in South Africa will be replaced with increased production of truck radial tyres.”
Apollo Tyres is planning to import radial tyres for luxury cars like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen from the company’s manufacturing facility in South Africa, rediff.com has reported. The local business news source reports that Indian radial production could halt at some point in the coming months.
Following Indian manufacturer, Apollo Tyres’ announcement that it has officially completed its acquisition of Dunlop International (DI) Tyres & Acccessories’ Southern African editorial partner, SA Treads, flew to DI’s headquarters in Durban to interview CE Mike Hankinson, MD Pierre Dreyer and Apollo joint managing director and CEO, Neeraj Kanwar.
(India/Rubber Asia) Goodyear India is quietly getting into the news again. After years of lack-lustre performance, the company is making rapid strides in select segments and is charting out aggressive growth strategies. Antonio M.Capellini, chairman and managing director of Goodyear India, has reason to be happy. Despite severe competition from multinational and local brands, the company has carved out a niche market for itself. In the OTR tyre segment it’s the market leader in the country. With an 18 per cent market share in the passenger car radial segment, it is the only tyre company in the country approved by all car manufacturers for OEM supplies.
Apollo Tyres, is reportedly planning acquisitions in Europe and South East Asia in the current financial year. “We will be interested in acquiring companies that will synergise the group’s expertise in the areas of manufacturing, overseas markets and new technology,” Neeraj Kanwar, joint managing director, Apollo Tyres, told India Business Line.
Acquisition will also be a strategy to increase the proportion of radialisation in the company’s truck and passenger car tyres. In January, the company acquired South Africa-based tyre manufacturer Dunlop Tyres international, a radial tyre manufacturer for roughly £36 million, 50 million euros.
China’s leading rubber exhibition – Tyres & RubberTech China 2006 (organized by China United Rubber Group Corporation) will take place from 20-22 November 2006 at INTEX Shanghai. The trade fair will occupy an exhibition area of 12,000 square metres, signifying a growth of 100 per cent from the 2005 event. More 400 exhibitors and about 8,000 trade visitors are expected to meet at the exhibition.
Falcon Tyres Ltd has recorded a 300 per cent increase in net profit since it was bought by the Indian Ruia group. Falcon Tyres registered a net profit of 36.3 million rupees compared with 9.2 million in 2004 – 2005. Total company turnover stood at 2.55 billion rupees against 2.19 billion the same time last year. The company announced 25 per cent dividend for its shareholders, which was 2.50 rupees per share, the highest in its history.
According to JK Tyres’ CFO, A K Kinra, a 7 – 8 per cent price increase should offset increased rubber costs. “The increase in the cost is very high. There is no way the tyre industry can sustain on its own, so to take care of that cost increase, it has to go for a price increase. That has compelled us to increase tyre prices also,” Mr Kinra told India television news sources.
In India, Mr. A K Kinra, Chief Financial Officer of JK Tyre, has said that the company will increase tyre prices by up to eight per cent from 1st June, explaining that the step was necessary to offset growing raw material costs, notably the rising price of rubber. He said that, in Malaysia, the price of rubber has risen by 85 per cent in a year and, as rubber constitutes up to one third of the cost of raw materials, the price increase was inevitable.
Tyre manufacturer CEAT has said that it will commission its radial tyre factory – the only radial plant on the island – this July and be supplying radial tyres to the local market in August, with exports beginning in October. The factory cost 350 million rupees (six million euros) and will produce two ranges of tyres; one for cars and one for vans. Initially the range will comprise the most popular sizes, with others added at a later date.
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