The Hindu Business Line : Apollo Tyres to raise output 60% in next fiscal

New Delhi, Nov. 11 With a view to becoming one of the top tyre makers in the world in the next five years, Apollo Tyres said it will increase its production by 60 per cent in the next fiscal.

The company plans to increase its exports to 20-30 per cent of the production, from 10-12 per cent now, besides an entry into the European passenger car radial market by April next year.

“By the first quarter of the next fiscal, we will increase our daily capacity to 1,600 tonnes. This will be aided by the new Chennai plant, which is slated to be operational by December 1, besides adding additional capacity to the existing plants,” said Mr Neeraj Kanwar, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Apollo Tyres.

The current combined production capacity of Apollo’s three plants is around 1,000 tonnes. Apollo has one facility in Gujarat and two in Kerela. The Chennai plant, with a 400 tonne capacity, will have a daily production of 8,000 passenger car radials and 6,000 truck and bus radials. The company, however, plans to sell the majority of the production domestically.

By 2011, the company will invest Rs 2,200 crore in both the new plant and for the capacity expansion of the existing plants, said Mr Kanwar. Mr Kanwar said that it plans to start importing tyres from its recently acquired Dutch unit Vredestein Banden B V by next year. The Dutch company is a niche tyre maker which makes tyres only above 15 inches in size.

On tyre prices, he said, “We recently increased prices by 2.5-3 per cent in October, because rubber prices have been on the rise. As and when it is required, we will correct it. A hike is only expected not before the end of the fiscal.”

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