Comments
Goodyear India plans to enter the large truck and bus radial (TBR) tyre market and is testing out its global range for Indian road conditions.
“We are putting our TBRs into the market on a pilot basis for testing. The market study will take around 18 months after which we will launch a new range. At present we only make cross ply (nylon) tyres for trucks and buses in which we have a small market share,” said Mr Rajeev Anand, Managing Director, Goodyear India, here on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the launch of a new range of passenger vehicle tyres ‘Assurance Fuel Max'.
TBR sales account for 12 per cent of the 9.5 lakh truck and bus tyres sold each month, said an industry expert. Sales have risen almost two to three times over the last two years on the back of strong growth in the commercial vehicle market and improvement in highways across the country. At present, JK Tyres is the market leader, followed by Apollo, Birla Tyres and MRF. Among foreign companies, Bridgestone imports and distributes TBRs.
The company will also invest in the expansion and modernisation of its two plants in India. The 15-year-old Aurangabad facility makes tyres for passenger cars while the Ballabhgarh unit in Haryana makes farm tyres.
“India is our second largest investment in the Asia-Pacific region. With the market and sales growing rapidly, we will invest more in modernisation, expansion and dealer network,” said Mr Anand.
The ‘Assurance Fuel Max' is a new tyre for cars offering 4 per cent more fuel efficiency and 15 per cent longer tyre life. It is priced at a premium of 5 to 20 per cent over the existing range.
“We will launch this tyre for the aftermarket in 15 and 16 inch sizes. Initially, these will be available for the Fiat Punto, Linea, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and the Volkswagen Polo. These will initially be imported from our plants in Indonesia and China but may be produced here if volumes grow,” said Mr D.P. Singh, VP, Consumer Business, Goodyear India.
The Goodyear India scrip was up 5.75 per cent to close at Rs 230 on Tuesday.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.