Tyre major JK Tyre and
Industries Limited, part of the Rs 28000 cr JK Organisation, reached a historic
milestone when it became the first Indian tyre company to produce 10 million
truck/bus radial tyres. With one of India’s largest tyre capacities at 3.5
million truck/bus radials per annum, the company is the undisputed leader in
this segment.
It was as historic occasion as the 10
millionth truck radial tyre came out of the mould at the company’s Vikrant
plant in Mysuru. JK Tyre took over this plant from the Karnataka Government in
the late 1990s and turned it around into a state-of-the-art plant with an
investment of over Re 1200 cr.
In the over 7.18 lakh
(2015-16) commercial vehicle market in India, JK Tyre is a leader having
pioneered the radial technology in India and was the first company to introduce
Truck & Bus Radial tyres way back in 1999, and is today the largest
producer in this category.
Speaking during the milestone celebrations, Dr
Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre noted, “Starting in 1977, when we set up our first
tyre plant in Rajasthan with 5 lakh per annum capacity, we have come a long way
and today JK Tyre has grown multi-fold.”
He said, “Over the years we have set up green
field plants, expanded our capacities at regular intervals and even acquired
plants across continents like the ones in Mexico, and recently 3 plants of
Cavendish Industries in Uttarakhand, back home to keep pace with the increase
in demand of tyres in the domestic as well as global markets, ”
JK Tyre is truly a multi-national company with
12 plants globally with a future ready capacity of 350 lac tyres per annum.
After the recent Re 2200 cr acquisition of Cavendish, JK Tyre has also entered
the high growth 2-3 wheeler segment with its brand Challenger already hitting
the market.
“Today we manufacture complete range of tyres
- from a 3 kilo scooter tyre to the 3.7 tonnes Ultra Large OTR tyre,” added Dr
Singhania.
Dr Singhania also informed that JK Tyre has
completed the second phase of construction of its modern and pure radial plant
at Chennai with a total investment of Rs 1430 crore. The expansion was
completed earlier this year. The plant makes truck radials and car radials and
has a production capacity of 12 lakh TBRs and 45 lakh PCRs. The plant has a
blueprint of scaling up to 2 million truck radials and 10 million PCRs. Also
the capacity of the Mexico plants is under expansion. The capacity is expected
to go up to 5 million tyres from the existing 3.5 million units per year.