The commercial vehicle tyres division of international automotive supplier Continental AG, one of the leading automotive suppliers worldwide has revived the collaboration with Modi, that began in 1974 with a cooperation agreement.
The company has thus secured access to the Indian market where around 12 million commercial vehicle tyres are required and growth rates of around 7 per cent have been forecast. Modi will produce over one million bias tires for trucks under the Continental brand. Production already began at the start of June 2009.
The agreements include a technical cooperation agreement and a license agreement for Continental brand bias tires. The Continental bias tires will be distributed via the revived Modi sales network.
Bias tire technology still accounts for over 90 per cent of the Indian market. Modern radial technology will remain of secondary importance for the replacement market for a while to come.
“For us, this new agreement represents an extremely useful revival of our activities in India, a market, which we know will grow significantly over the coming years,” explains Continental project manager Christian Sass.
The collaboration between Continental and Modi dates back to 1974 when an extensive technical cooperation was agreed on for the set-up of a new Modi tire plant in Modipuram, Meerut in the state of Uttar Pradesh. From planning to execution and from technology transfer to active support, Continental has supplied expertise to Modi for many years.
The tires were marketed under the name Modi-Continental and quickly gained the position of a benchmark on the Indian market. The brand awareness of Continental increased from year to year. However, Modi temporarily stopped production of bias tires in 2001 and only started to reactivate the tire plant two years ago.
However, Modi temporarily stopped production of bias tires in 2001 and only started to reactivate the tire plant two years ago. New contacts were formed between Continental and Modi and the previous arrangements were revived in the subsequent agreements. Further collaboration possibilities are currently being looked into.