The Hindu Business Line : Truck, bus tyre production down at 8.8 lakh units in April

AFTER staging a comeback in March 2004, truck and bus tyre production slipped in April to 8.8 lakh units against 9.43 lakh units in the previous month.

The production performance in April this year was however much higher than the production level of 7.77 lakh tyres recorded in April 2003.

Tyre industry sources maintained that the slippage in production in April was not on account of what is generally known as year-end effect. "There is no particular reason. There has been no production cuts. The demand continues to be good", they said.

In February 2004, the production stood at 8.8 lakh tyresagainst 8.9 lakh tyres in March 2003.

Truck and bus tyres account for more than 70 per cent of the Rs 12,000-crore domestic tyre industry. The industry expects the demand for truck and bus tyres to grow by at least 5 per cent in 2004-05 over and above the 10 per cent growth witnessed in the previous year.

On the exports front, truck and bus tyre exports declined in April this year to 1.55 lakh units against 2.23 lakh tyres in March.

The latest data compiled by the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association (ATMA), however, shows that the export performance in April 2004 was much better than last year, when it stood at 1.24 lakh units.

The domestic tyre industry had exported 1.93 lakh units during March 2003.

In February 2004, the exports stood at about two lakh units.

Passenger car tyre production by the member companies of ATMA increased to 9.37 lakh tyres in April 2004 against 9.14 lakh tyres in March. In April 2003, the production stood at 5.88 lakh tyres.