The Hindu Business Line : Apollo Tyres to set up Rs 520-cr plant near Chennai

WARM WELCOME: The Apollo Tyres CMD, Mr Onkar S. Kanwar, calling on the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, at the State Secretariat in Chennai on Monday. — S.R. Raghunathan

Chennai , Aug. 7

Apollo Tyres Ltd plans to set up a Rs 520-crore automobile tyres manufacturing plant near Chennai.

According to a Tamil Nadu Government press release, the company has entered into an agreement with the State Government to set up the project, which would generate employment for over 2,000 persons.

The 135-acre facility is to come up at the Oragadam Industrial Park promoted by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) near Kanchipuram on the Chennai-Bangalore route.

The agreement was signed by Apollo Tyres Chairman and CEO, Mr Onkar S. Kanwar, and the Tamil Nadu Industries Secretary, Mr Shaktikanta Das, in the presence of the Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi.

The company will make car, bus and truck tyres at the facility. Apollo Tyres, which is developing the technology for bus and truck radial tyres indigenously, will apply this technology at the facility, the release said. The New Delhi-based tyre manufacturer has factories in Kerala, Pune and Gujarat. It recently acquired two Dunlop tyre plants in South Africa and two in Zimbabwe.

In a communication to the stock exchanges, Apollo Tyres said it intended to invest about Rs 300 crore in fixed assets in the first phase within three years, going up to Rs 450-520 crore within five years from the date of the MoU.

A company press release available on its web site quoted Mr Kanwar as saying "we intend to build one of the finest and most progressive radial tyre manufacturing units here in Oragadam."

He said "the radial technology which will be used, is currently being developed by us in Apollo, using our internal R&D expertise. This fresh capacity will allow us to produce technology products across categories for both the OE (original equipment) and replacement markets."

The release said that the Tamil Nadu unit would be used exclusively for manufacturing truck, bus and light truck radial tyres, along with high and ultra-high performance passenger car radial tyres for the domestic and export markets.

Tamil Nadu was chosen as a location, the release said, due to its proximity to the rubber growing region, the presence of automobile manufacturers in the State, good connectivity to the domestic market and proximity to a port for ease of import of raw materials and export of finished products.

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