A full five stars go to the Balkrishna Industries (BKT) tyre factory in Bhuj, India following a thorough inspection by the British Safety Council. The health, safety and environmental management specialist awarded the tyre maker top marks during its Five Star Occupational Health & Safety Audit, which measures performance against key health and safety management best practice indicators and reviews over fifty component elements.
For almost 40 years BKT has specialised in the off-highway tyre segment, but the firm now has its sights on India’s car and truck/bus tyre markets. The company outlined this aim in a new five-year strategic plan that targets annual revenue of Rs 230 billion (£1.99 billion / US$2.7 billion) by 2030.
Balkrishna Industries – better known as BKT – has shared some facts and figures from its Sustainability Report for the financial year 2023-24. Verified by Bureau Veritas, this more than 200-page document covers all aspects of the off-highway tyre specialist’s ESG activities.
At November’s EIMA 2024 show in Italy, BKT launched four new products that it “designed and engineered to meet the increasingly complex needs of modern agriculture.” The off-highway tyre specialist comments that “efficiency and productivity” were the “driving force” behind the research and development process involved in bringing these tyres to market.
Off-highway tyre manufacturer BKT has appointed Ludovic Revel its new President Global OEM. Revel joined the company in June from Yokohama TWS and reports directly to Lucia Salmaso, Managing Director of BKT Europe.
Off-highway tyre specialist BKT Tires has entered into an official partnership with The Hundred, the ECB 100-ball cricket competition that will take the field at various locations across the UK from 23 July. As part of this partnership, BKT’s logo will feature on the sleeves of all eight teams’ playing kits across the men’s and women’s competitions in this, The Hundred’s fourth season. BKT advertising will also be showcased in sportsgrounds throughout the entire tournament.
BKT confirms that it has completed work on a new tyre mould plant at its Bhuj site in Gujarat, India. The tyre maker states that, as planned, it invested a capital expenditure of Rs 3 billion (£27.7 million) into this project.
A fortnight ago, BKT announced its aim of increasing production by around 67% and achieving an annual turnover of US$2 billion in 3 years. The company’s Bhuj facility in western India is key to these plans and will soon manufacture numerous new products, including off-highway truck tyres, agro-forestry radials, tracks and an expanded mining tyre portfolio. BKT shares news of these and other plans.
Off-highway tyre specialist BKT has quantified its growth ambitions, and the figures are ambitious. Tyrepress reported yesterday that the manufacturer’s capacity across all manufacturing facilities will reach 360,000 tonnes later in 2023. But BKT has big plans for its “most strategic plant” in Bhuj and has announced its goal of harnessing this facility to achieve annual tyre production of 600,000 tonnes in 3 years. It also intends for turnover of US$2 billion a year by the end of this period.
The Tractor of the Year 2023 awards have taken place at the SIMA show, with BKT serving as main sponsor for the third consecutive year. As this year’s winners were announced, the tyre maker also gave word that it would return as main sponsor in 2024.
Although impacted by the rising cost of raw materials and logistics, off-highway tyre specialist BKT delivered a healthy profit in the financial year ending 31 March 2022. Profit after tax rose 22 per cent year-on-year to Rs 14.11 billion (£148.58 million) on the back of income that rose 47 per cent to Rs 84.19 billion (£886.52 million) and sales volumes that increased 27 per cent to 288,795 tonnes. EBITDA was, at Rs 21.82 billion (£229.76 million), up 21 per cent, with the margin contracting 5.6 percentage points to 25.9 per cent.
Off-highway tyre specialist BKT has extended the availability of its range in Canada through a new supply alliance with Fountain Tire. Effective immediately, Fountain Tire will have full access to BKT’s OTR product line-up for sale through its more than 160 locations across the country.
BKT has become presenting sponsor of the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship. Contested on 30 April at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Canada, the World Curling Federation event is the second to receive BKT sponsorship; the OTR and agricultural tyre manufacturer was the title sponsor of the World Men’s Curling Championship in Calgary between 2 and 11 April. BKT said the number of curling enthusiasts has grown significantly worldwide over the last two years and the sport is particularly popular in key markets for the brand, like Canada’s rural population.
Following a corona-related delay, off-highway tyre specialist BKT is gearing up to introduce a new, supersized OTR tyre. It has now produced a prototype of its BKT Earthmax SR 468, a size 40.00 R57 tyre developed for use on rigid dump trucks. Over the coming months, the tyre maker’s engineers will test the prototype ahead of the line’s market debut.
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.
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Curling Canada/ michael burns photo
