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.
BKT (Balkrishna Tires) has become Official Global Partner of LaLiga, Spain’s top-flight football league, for a period of three years. The partnership takes effect immediately and runs until the end of the 2021/22 season.
In India, the lighting of a lamp symbolises new beginnings. For BKT, this tradition was a fitting gesture for observing a significant step in what it calls the ‘Next Level’: The lighting ceremony marked the start of festivities to celebrate the inauguration of BKT’s rebuilt European headquarters on 5 April.
Yet another sports sponsorship for BKT – following on from the start of its Serie B and Coupe de la Ligue title sponsorships in Italy and France, the off-highway tyre specialist has entered into a partnership with the KFC Big Bash League (BBL) cricket league in Australia. BKT has signed an agreement with governing body Cricket Australia that secures its status as off-highway tyre supplier to the Twenty20 cricket league for three years.
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.
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Curling Canada/ michael burns photo