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Falcon Tyres Plans Another Price Increase

Despite having already implemented OE and aftermarket price increases in the vicinity of 15 per cent during early August, India’s Falcon Tyres is planning another price increase for September. This next round of price ‘enhancements’ will see prices go up by as much as a quarter.

“We have to increase prices in next couple of weeks to maintain profitability,” stated parent company Ruia Group chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia. “Phenomenal increase in cost of production – especially that of natural rubber and rubber chemicals – had eroded our margins to the extent that we were selling a number of products below the cost prices. While we have increased the prices once this month, another price increase up to 20-25 per cent is imminent to maintain positive margin on the entire product range.”

20th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop India to Import Radial, OTR Tyres

Further to the Ruia Group’s plans for Dunlop India outlined on August 19, the company is reportedly looking to source radial and larger size OTR tyres from overseas to fill gaps in its own domestic production programme. Some 10 to 15 containers of tyres will initially be imported from East Asia and sold in the Indian market under the Dunlop brand name.

20th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo Seeks Government Help Over Lockout

Management at Apollo Tyres, who instigated a lockout at the company’s factory in Kerala, India, are now seeking local government intervention. According to local media sources, the lockout was declared at 1am on August 16 in response to a strike by workers that began two days earlier.

“We feel it is only the labour ministry in the state that can intervene and settle the issue, because even after making an additional capital investment of Rs 150 million (£1.86 million) three months ago, production has not gone up,” an Apollo Tyres official told the Indo-Asian News Service, requesting anonymity.

19th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Ruia Outlines Dunlop India Plans at AGM

Dunlop India is planning to build a ten megawatt captive power plant at its manufacturing unit at Shahgunj in West Bengal. Pawan Kumar Ruia, chairman of Dunlop parent company the Ruia Group, Pawan Kumar Ruia, announced during the company’s annual general meeting that this Rs 500 million (£6.2 million) facility would be built during the next one to one and a half years.

The group has just begun work on a six megawatt captive power plant at a manufacturing site belonging to Falcon Tyres, a company acquired at the same time as Dunlop India in 2005, and as the company’s own requirements here are only 3.5 megawatts, it will sell the surplus electricity. The Shahgunj unit’s captive need is five megawatts.

19th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Mahindra & Mahindra forms JV with Chinese Tractor Maker

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, one of India’s largest vehicle manufacturers, has bought a 51 per cent stake in the third largest Chinese tractor company (in terms of volume) Jiangsu Yueda Yangcheng Tractor Company. The value of the net assets transferred to the joint venture is said to be around US$50 million and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd’s investment is expected to be around US$26 million.

19th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Redevelopment for Apollo Factory Site

The 30-acre site of Apollo Tyres’ PTL Enterprise tyre manufacturing facility in Kalassery will reportedly be used for residential and commercial development following the factory’s relocation to Irapuram in the southwest India state of Kerala. The company intends to invest around Rs 400 million (£4.97 million) in the first phase of the relocation project, and in the second phase it will begin the production of cross-ply tyres at the new site. Previous reports indicate the factory will focus upon the production of specialty tyres.

13th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Organisers Expecting More Visitors for CITExpo 2008

Show organisers are expecting more visitors than ever when nearly 300 exhibitors present their tyre products at the 6th CITExpo, held at the Shanghai Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center on 17, 18 and 19 September 2008. Technology on show will include radial tyres, bias tyres, wheels/rims, tyre maintenance equipments, retread materials and equipments, tyre production material and equipment and other related products. According to CITExpo organisers, Reliable International Exhibition Services Co., Ltd., the two original exhibition halls have already been fully occupied by new and rebooking exhibitors, causing them to add Hall 1A to exhibition space.

Looking ahead, Reliable announced that the 7th CITExpo will be held in the same venue on 9, 10 and 11 September 2009. According to the organizer, they have already received more than 15 exhibitors’ bookings for the 2009 show. Those early bookings have committed a year in advance in order secure the best booth location for the future CITExpo show, the organisers explained.

13th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Rubber Exports Rise 38% in April-July

India’s natural rubber exports are said to have increased 38 per cent between April and July this year, according to estimates from the country’s Rubber Board. A total of 23,998 were exported during the period as opposed to 14,816 tonnes in the same period of the previous financial year. Favourable global market conditions in July led to a total of 10,862 tonnes of natural rubber exported during this month alone.

12th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Asia Sales Make Up for US Decline, Says Lanxess

Global number two producer of butyl rubber for use in tyres, Lanxess AG, believes the decline in demand from US tyre manufacturers will more than be compensated for by sales in China and India. CFO Matthias Zachert informed Bloomberg that the company’s experience in the US, where rising fuel prices are prompting motorists to drive less and therefore require fewer tyres, is a ‘relatively moderate decline.’

“The growth rates you have in India and China are, in absolute terms, clearly outpacing whatever little percentage you are going to lose on miles being driven,” he said.

8th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Ceat Chooses Consultancy Over Strategic Partner

Ceat Limited is reportedly no longer seeking a strategic partner for its planned radial facility in Baroda, India, and is instead receiving technological assistance and know-how from a US based consultancy firm. The tyremaker has sought a partner for assistance in setting up a more than Rs 6 billion (£72.6 million) truck and bus radial factory for more than a year, and in February Sales and Marketing vice-president Arnab Banerjee felt confident enough on the likelihood of this to say that Ceat “should be able to finalise the partners soon.”

6th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Salil Gupta New Apollo Tyres CFO

Apollo Tyres’ announced expansion plans have been augmented by the appointment of a new chief financial officer. Mr. Salil Gupta, formerly group CFO at Dentsu India, will in his new role oversee the organisation’s finance, taxation and accounts functions – Apollo states that his primary objective is to contribute to the organisation’s financial health and stability, ensuring full compliance with statutory guidelines and the company’s corporate governance policies. His responsibilities also include an advisory role to the company’s legal and secretarial functions.

5th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Two Tech Appointments

Tech International, which markets the Truflex/Pang brand of industrial chemical and rubber products, including tyre repair and wheel service products, has made two senior-level appointments.

Firstly, Tim McLaughlin will serve in a consultant role to focus on sales and market share growth in North America. McLaughlin owns and operates his own industrial products distributorship, T. Carson and Company, in Monument, Colorado.

4th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

IndianOil to Establish £90m Synthetic Rubber Facility

IndianOil, the largest company in India in terms of sales and profit, intends to establish its first styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) facility. This plant, located at Panipat in the north of India and to be built at an investment price of Rs 7.61 billion (£90.55 million), will be 48 per cent owned by IndianOil. The company plans to offer two further investors respective shares of 32 per cent and 20 per cent in the 120,000 tonne per annum emulsion SBR project.

31st July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

India’s ATMA Repeats Demand for Duty Free NR Imports

With India’s tyre industry potentially facing a severe shortage of natural rubber, the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) has repeated its demand for the immediate duty-free importation of 100,000 tonnes of natural rubber.

The industry, which consumes 57 per cent of India’s domestically produced natural rubber, is said to be in the midst of its worst ever raw material availability crisis. The Hindu Business Line quotes ATMA director general Rajiv Budhraja as saying during the final days of July 2008 the availability of sheet rubber to the tyre industry has been ‘woefully inadequate’. Mr. Budhraja added that, as domestic natural rubber prices are even higher than those on the international market, the commodity now accounts for 41 per cent of the tyre industry’s raw material costs.

31st July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Phillips Carbon Black Considering Greenfield Facility

India’s largest carbon black producer, Phillips Carbon Black Ltd, plans to establish a fourth facility and expand capacity at two existing plants, those at Baroda and Durgapur. Following the company’s recent AGM, company chairman Sanjeev Goenka indicated another facility, or alternatively a further acquisition of capacity, may be necessary now that existing capacity at the three factories in fully utilised. This fourth greenfield plant, should the company choose to take this option, may be located either within India or overseas.

29th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors