Ceat Looking to Set up New Greenfield Site

Ceat Tyres is planning to set up a new truck and bus radial production plant, which would also be used to produce car, tractor and speciality tyres, such as EM/OTR products, with at estimated cost range of 4.5 – 6 billion rupees (around £51 million). Local news sources have reported that the company is currently “scouting for land across India.” The final decision will reportedly be taken shortly.

“We want to expand our operations beyond our current facilities as we are operating at almost 100 per cent capacity, there is no space for any further expansion. We are looking at options of going for a greenfield site that will help boost our production numbers and also satisfy the OEM demands,” Arnab Banerjee, vice president, sales and marketing, told India’s Business Standard.

Ceat recently announced plans to increase truck and bus tyre production at its plants in Bhandup and Nashik to 175,000 units from 150,000 units per year. According to the newspaper report, over 75 per cent of the company’s sales revenue is generated from this segment.

The company will also up production of car radials from 60,000 units to 100,000 units in a period of 12 months. “Speciality tyre” production will reportedly increase by 30 per cent from the current figure of 4,000 tyres in the next six months.

Sources reported that Ceat is also planning to launch a new two-wheeler tyre by May next year, not to mention a low rolling resistance truck product at some point in 2007.