India: Rubber Board, tyre manufacturers association to define quality standards

CHENNAI, JULY 11:

The Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) and the Rubber Board will define the quality standards that tyre manufacturers expect in domestic natural rubber.

Satish Sharma, Chairman, ATMA, told a select group of journalists at the fifth edition of the ongoing Tyrexpo India that the industry body will define what quality standards the tyre-makers will need in the mid- and long-terms — 3-10 years. “This was welcomed by both the Rubber Board and rubber growers,” he said.

The decision came after a stakeholders’ meeting in which rubber growers questioned tyre makers’ sudden focus on quality. Rubber growers felt the domestic tyre industry had not defined the quality it expected from them.

As Chairman of ATMA, “I want to bridge the deficit in perception,” Sharma said.

He explained the industry’s move to define standards will give it a clear direction.

A team has been formed, and over the next three months, the tyre industry will let the rubbers growers know about the quality standards it will want from them.

Sharma said the Prime Minister’s Office wanted to study the rubber sector and has sought ATMA’s suggestions.

Also, the government wants the tyre industry to focus on the North-East region in order to develop more rubber-producing zones. “Presently, rubber plantations there produce very little and they don’t know where to sell.”.

ATMA has commissioned a team that is presently studying the rubber ecosystem in the region. It will come out with its findings in the next few months.

“Earlier, militancy and law-and-order issues prohibited us from studying the potential there. Now, with law and order in place, and as the government has a ‘Look Eeast’ policy, there is an opportunity to develop a road map for the rubber sector in the region,” Sharma said.