KM Mammen, Chairman and Managing Director, MRF Ltd, has been unanimously elected Chairman of the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA), the national industry body for automotive tyre sector.

Satish Sharma, President (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa) of Apollo Tyres Ltd, has been elected Vice-Chairman.

Set up in 1975, ATMA is amongst the most active national industry bodies in the country representing ₹50,000 crore ($8 billion) automotive tyre industries.

On taking over as Chairman of ATMA, Mammen, said he is stepping in at a critical juncture for the industry. The prevailing inverted duty structure which allows cheap import of tyres while making raw material, rubber, imports expensive is a major concern.

Indian tyre manufacturers import raw material at 25 per cent import duty while a tyre can be imported by the competition at 8.6 per cent duty. Indian exports are also uncompetitive as compared with international players.

This inverted duty structure has to be corrected immediately before the domestic manufacturers face unmanageable losses, he said.

Mammen will take over from Raghupati Singhania, who is the Chairman and Managing Director of JK Tyres & Industries Ltd.

Mammen has held various executive positions in business associations in the country, including President of the Indo Australian Chamber of Commerce. He is currently an executive member on the board of FICCI and a member on the Board of the Madras Christian College, a statement said.

Eleven tyre companies comprising Indian and international tyre majors and representing over 90 per cent of production of tyres in India are members of ATMA. These include Apollo Tyres, Birla Tyres, Bridgestone India, Ceat, Continental India, Goodyear India, JK Tyre & Industries, Michelin, MRF, TVS Tyres and Yokohama.

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