NEW DELHI: Apollo Tyres will invest USD one billion or around Rs. 5,545 cr in the next five years to expand its global footprint which will include setting up two new plants in South East Asia and Eastern Europe.
The company will also be converting its Kalamassery plant in Kerala into a dedicated unit for production of off-highway tyres (OHTs) with about 85 percent of the output aimed to cater to export markets, including the US, Europe, Australia and Latin America.
Moreover, the company will also be hiking the production capacity of its factory in the Netherlands to 7.5 mn units a year from the current 6 mn units per annum.
“Over the next five years, we will be setting up two new greenfield plants, one either in Thailand or Indonesia and another in Eastern Europe in a phased manner,” Apollo Tyre vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar told PTI.
“The first phase of the SE Asia will entail an investment of about USD 250-300 mn. The initial capacity of the plant will be 16,000 units of passenger car radials (PCRs) per day and 1,500 units of truck and bus radials a day (TBRs),” Kanwar said.
The second phase will entail an investment of around USD 200 mn and the proposed plant would have a full capacity of 24,000 units of PCRs per day and 3,000 units of TBRs a day.
“But, before we take up the second phase of the SE Asia project, we will start the greenfield plant in Eastern Europe. As of now, we have put our earlier plans to set up a plant in either Poland or Hungary on the back burner,” he said.
“The plant in SE Asia will mainly cater to the entire ASEAN countries and China, while 20 per cent of the production will be exported to Europe and Latin America,” he added.
The proposed new plant in Eastern Europe will be for production of PCRs with an envisaged capacity of 7 mn units per annum entailing a total investment of around USD 350 mn – reports PTI.
For the Kalamassery plant, which currently produces agricultural and industrial tyres, truck and bus tyres, Kanwar said Apollo Tyres will be investing about Rs. 200 cr.
On the expansion of the factory of its Netherlands arm Vredestein Banden, Kanwar said: “This is currently at a project discussion stage, but it will take about 15 months once we start it. What we are looking at is to increase the production capacity to 7.5 mn per annum from the current 6 mn.”
The company is looking at markets like the US, Europe, Australia and Latin America for the OHTs.
Source: Rubber Country
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