JK tyre to invest Rs 1100 cr to expand capacity

New Delhi, July 9 (UNI) JK Tyre and Industries Ltd, the leading tyre manufacturer, today announced a major investment plan to the tune of Rs 1,100 crore to be utilised in the next three years to expand on its existing capacity.

The company plans to raise the amount for investment through internal accruals and debts, with the company looking to give major thrust on expanding the capacity in the truck and bus radial tyre segment. The segment is expected to grow five-fold to 10 per cent in the next four to five years, in wake of improvement in quality of roads, newer highways, golden quadrilateral etc, said a statement.

JK Tyre has expanded its capacity by 50 per cent to about four lakh tyres and plans to increase this capacity substantially by 2010.

The company is also looking at expansion across the four existing facilities and investments would be spread over in the next three years. The company initially plans to invest close to Rs 120 crore in the coming months for increasing capacity in the Off The Road (OTR) segment by 50 per cent. This segment largely contains tyres used for mining, cement, coal and earth moving activities, added the statement.

In the passenger radial segment, the company has expanded production capacity to 45 lakh tyres per annum and plans to invest about Rs 200 crore in further expanding production facility, through Brownfield expansion.

JK Tyre currently exports to over 74 countries across six continents. The company is also looking at newer markets to export tyres and increase revenue significantly with exports of about Rs 500 crores.

UNI