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Truck, bus tyre output continues to decline

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Oct. 11

TRUCK and bus tyre production registered a sharp decline in August 2001 to 6.79 lakh tyres, the lowest production performance during the current fiscal.

The production performance of this category, which accounts for about 70 per cent of the turnover of the domestic tyre industry, had touched levels of 7.56 lakh tyres in July, 7.81 lakh tyres in June, 7.71 lakh tyres in May and 7.29 lakh tyres in April.

``The decline in production during August is primarily on account of closure of the Modi Rubber plant which contributes about 50,000-60,000 truck tyres every month. The plant has remained closed for most part of August and entire September. The sluggishn ess in demand has impeded other players from filling the gap created by stoppage of production at Modi Rubber,'' Mr D. Ravindran, Director-General of the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association (ATMA), told Business Line here.

Even as production of truck and bus tyres suffered a setback in August, the export levels of truck and bus tyres continued to remain at the July level of 1.63 lakh tyres.

``Our export performance continuing to be steady in August is no consolation as it has worsened in September due to various factors such as terrorist attacks in the US and deepened demand recession in the US markets,'' he said. The truck and bus tyre exp orts from the country during August 2000 stood at 1.61 lakh tyres.

Production of passenger car tyres by ATMA member companies, however, remained steady at 6.54 lakh tyres during August 2001 as against a production level of 6.57 lakh tyres in the previous month. Passenger car tyre production during August 2000 stood at 5 .38 lakh tyres.

Light Truck Tyres production for August 2001 stood at 1.92 lakh tyres as against a production level of 1.87 lakh tyres during the same month the previous year.

Production of tractor tyres (front) during August 2001 stood at 0.79 lakh tyres (0.80 lakh tyres during August 2000). While production of tractor (rear) tyres during the fifth month of the current fiscal stood at 0.57 lakh tyres (0.67 lakh tyres during A ugust 2000), production of tractor trailer during August 2001 stood at 0.25 lakh tyres (0.20 lakh tyres during August 2000).