The new BKT carbon black plant at the company’s Bhuj site in India is expected to reach 100 per cent capacity by 2021. The tyre maker says that production capacity for carbon black reached 60,000 tonnes by the end of June 2019; trial production commenced on 28 June. Capacity is expected to reach 80,000 tonnes by the end of September and continue increasing to a planned production capacity of 130,000 tonnes per annum.
When Tyrepress.com visited BKT’s new factory in Bhuj, India late in 2015, work had begun on a new research and development centre. The off-road tyre maker reports that this facility is now complete, and it recently inaugurated the ‘Suresh Poddar Innovation Hub’. The centre is named after the oldest of the three Poddar brothers. It is located within a 25-acre area called the Mahabirprasad Poddar Knowledge Center, named after BKT founder, the late Mahabirprasad Poddar.
Eight hectares have been set aside at the Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT) production site in Bhuj, India for the construction of a new carbon black plant. Last month the tyre maker’s Board of Directors approved an initial investment of Rs 1.5 billion (£18.1 million) for this project to add backward integration to BKT’s supply chain, and the company says the plant will not only provide a constant supply of raw materials for its tyre production, the carbon black produced in Bhuj will enable it to “better ensure raw material qualities thanks to the now even more accurate controls at the beginning of the entire manufacturing process.”
The northwest region of India’s Gujarat state is home to large areas of desert where you may encounter thorny shrubs, packs of wild animals – and a state-of-the-art US$500 million tyre factory. On a 312 acre site, Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (BKT) has erected one of the largest off-road tyre plants in the world, a facility capable of producing 325 tonnes of tyres per day. Tyres & Accessories visited in early December.
Every year, Indian off-road tyre specialist Balkrishna Industries Ltd. invests three to four per cent of its turnover into research and development, and through this focus the company is able to bring 60 to 80 new types of tyre to market annually. The reported average development time for these tyres is six to eight weeks.
