‘Margins under pressure for tyre manufacturers’

By admin June 21, 2011 12:31 pm IST

Backed by the strong growth in auto sales, tyre production in India has been on the rise over the last couple of years. However, ever-increasing rise in rubber price has hit the margins of tyre manufacturers. In an interview with OEM Update; Anant Goenka, deputy managing director at CEAT Limited expresses his concern
 
Post recession, at what rate has the tyres manufacturing industry in India been growing? What has been the growth for CEAT Tyres?
In FY 2010-11, the tyre industry grew by 24 per cent. CEAT has also grown by 24 per cent in FY11.
 
What strategies do you have to improve your market share?
We are increasing our investments in the brand and expanding our capacity in high growth segments like motorcycles, last mile, passenger car and truck radial tyres.
 
What is your current production capacity? What are your CAPEX plans for ramping-up production capacity of Halol facility?
Halol plant has become operational in FY 10-11. Our two largest segments are truck and light truck where we produce 2047000 and 749000 numbers tyres every year respectively. At Halol, we have invested Rs. 620 crore, we should reach 150 MT/day in a year’s time.
 
You are also going to set-up a facility at Ambernath in Maharashtra. Can you brief us about this facility in details? What is the production capacity expected?
We have recently acquired some land for a future plant. We are still working on the details.