Apollo to expand Limda plant

The Rs 2300 crore, Apollo Tyres Limited (ATL) is in advanced stage to expand its tyre production facility at Limda near Vadodara.

The company plans foray into the Indian radial car tyres market to capitalise on booming automobile industry sales.

The move would boost company's passenger car radial (PCR) tyre manufacturing capacity.

Talking to Business Standard, S R Raijada, spokesperson of Apollo Tyre, said "The company will invest Rs 300 crore to expand its PCR capacity at its Limda unit".

At present the Limda based plant has capacity of 7000 units of PCR per day.

By the end of 2006 the company will increase its capacity to 11000 PCR units per day at the Limda plant.

Its PCR tyre brand Acelere launched last year was a success.

The company has decided to focus on expanding its radial car tyres market share during the year 2006. "The company intends to expand the PCR production upto 30000 units per day in a phase wise manner" said Raijada.

Acelere was a premium H"�rated rated tubeless car radial tyres for select B segment cars and complete range of premium C, D and E segment cars.

Currently, Maruti Udyog Ltd and Mahindra & Mahindra were the two largest clients for PCR tyres.

The Limda plant was commissioned with an investment of about Rs 180 crore in 1991.

The major type of tyre produced at the Limda plant was bias (conventional) tyres.

It had capacity of 280 tones per day.

"The bias tyres capacity will be increased to 290 tones per day but the major thrust will be on expansion of its PCR production capacity" said Raijada.

APL commanded 25 per cent market share of bias tyres in India.

In PCR tyres, the company has negligible market share but aims to be a major player in coming years, said Raijada.

The company intended to acquire smaller tyres manufacturing units in India as well as abroad.