India’s largest tyremaker, MRF, recently outlined its plans for expansion at three of its factories. The expansion is estimated to cost somewhere between £58 and 70 million, and will be implemented over a period of two years.
Indian textiles company Gupta Synthetics seems set to be entering the tyre raw materials market after announcing plans to invest 2.23 billion rupees (£25.5 million) to set up a nylon tyre cord fabric (NTCF) making and nylon filament yarn (NFY) making factory in the city of Silvassa.
The facility will produce the cord fabric and yarn for the tyre, textile and furniture industries and will have an output capacity of 8,128 tonnes per year. The NFY side of the operations should be producing output by October 2007 while NTCF production fabric will commence in 2008.
MRF India has achieved a milestone turnover for the first time in the history of the Indian tyre industry. Ranked the 15th largest tyre company in the world, MRF has achieved a fiscal turnover, for the year ended 30th September 2006, of 42,000 million Indian Rupees (US$914 million). This record turnover, which has been achieved for the first time in the Indian tyre industry, represents a 22 per cent increase over the company’s 2005 turnover.
Luxury car imports into India could slow down after the Indian government circulated plans to require all replacement and OE tyres to bear the ISI mark. A draft circular for the new regulation has already been issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards and the rule is expected to take effect in the next 40 to 60 days.
Indian tyre maker MRF Ltd. is considering a price rise of up to six per cent to meet a sharp increase in rubber and oil prices, a top official said.
However, the company would decide the timing and degree of the increase only after watching market conditions and the strategy of competitors, said Philip Eapen, executive director for marketing.
“Eventually if we do not increase our prices fully, there will be a time when we will incur losses,” he continued.
Following the opening of a 600,000 square foot warehouse in Miami, Florida-based wholesaling operation Tire Group International (TGI) is setting its sights on greater international business. TGI has expanded 750 per cent since its foundation in 1992. In addition to its Miami, Florida and Leon, Mexico warehousing space, the company maintains warehousing capacity in Laredo Texas and Hamburg, Germany.
Katsuhiko Taguchi and co-driver Mark Stacey of Team MRF Tyres recently won the New Caledonia round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), which consisted of two super special stages and rough stages. Their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII finished a remarkable six minutes and 26 seconds ahead of the second-placed Mitsubishi of Rifat Sungkar, from Indonesia.
MRF moves up three rank positions from 2005 to rank highest in customer satisfaction in the JD Power Asia Pacific 2006 India Original Tire Customer Satisfaction Index (TCSI) Study. This is the fourth time MRF has ranked highest in the study. The study, now in its sixth year, analyzes perceptions of new-vehicle buyers on five critical factors: appearance of tyre, durability of tyres, ride quality, traction and handling.
Indian company MRF Tyres is setting up a small plant in Sri Lanka for manufacturing rubber, a top MRF official said. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of launching ‘V’ rated tyres for luxury cars, Mr Philip Eapen, Executive Director-Marketing said experimental production has already commenced at the new facility. However, he did not provide any details about investment in the plant.
While India is home to one of the world’s fastest growing tyre markets, when it comes to exports the countries domestic manufacturers are wary of being caught out on quality control and having to face “extreme” insurance claims.
According to the Financial Express newspaper, India exports 20 per cent of its annual tyre production and some of the country’s largest producers are still struggling to ramp up exports for various reasons, including “liabilities arising of defective products” – Indian manufacturers simply cannot afford to be involved in a large scale product recall in either the European or US markets.
Tubeless tyre sales in India remain flat despite the best promotional efforts of manufacturers. According to the Business Standard, tubeless products “have failed to impress buyers.”
“The infrastructure development and the road conditions have not kept pace with the technology development. The sales of tubeless tyres is restricted to the higher segment premium cars and still not many here are aware about the benefits of tubeless tyres,” said the regional service manager of JK Tyre.
The privately owned Ruia Group has closed a deal to buy Dunlop India Ltd and Falcon Tyres Ltd, from the Dubai-based MR Chhabria group for a reported 2 billion rupees (£25 million).
“An agreement has been reached between Mr Pawan Kumar Ruia and the (Chhabria) Jumbo Group to hand over both Dunlop India and Falcon Tyres,” said H Sandu, a Chhabria group spokesman, confirming the development took place at a meeting in Mumbai.
Jussi Valimaki (Finland), of Team MRF Tyres, won the Indonesian round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship at Makassar during the September 10/11, 2005 Gudang Garam International Rally 2005.
Driving a Mitsubishi Evo 8, the Indonesian victory also confirmed the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship Drivers’ title for Valimaki, the 31-year old MRF Team driver, who collected 15 points and reached a total of 70 points in the Drivers’ Championship – a lead that no APRC driver can match this year. Valimaki wins both the overall and the Group N categories.
(India/Rubber Asia) MRF, the Indian tyre major, has reported a drop in net profit to 168.8 million rupees in the third quarter ending 30 June 2005, compared with 170.9 million rupees in the same quarter last year.
Net sales in the quarter, however, improved to 7,951.2 million against 6,562.2 million rupees in the same period last year. In the first nine months (October 2004 to June 2005), net profits dipped to 289.6 million rupees against 469 million in the year ago period, even as net sales rocketed to 21,850 million rupees as against 19,050 million in the same period last year.
Indian newspaper, The Hindu Business Line, has awarded tyre manufacturer, MRF, its ‘Buy’ rating. “Though the recent trend of subdued growth in earnings may continue for a while, the long-term prospects are encouraging,” the newspaper reported.
“The performance of MRF and other tyre producers has taken a knock owing to the sharp rise in the price of key raw materials such as rubber and carbon black. The pick-up in demand in domestic and export markets has mitigated the damage to the bottom line,” the report added.
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