Ceat Lanka unit to go on-stream soon

Tyre major Ceat, which is currently expanding facilities in India and Sri Lanka with an investment of about Rs 48 crore, is aiming at a turnover of around Rs 2,400 crore in the current fiscal.

"At the moment we are expanding the capacities of our car radial production at Nashik and off-road tyre production at Bhandup near Mumbai. Our third radial plant in Sri Lanka is going on-stream next month," Paras K Chowdhary, managing director of Ceat, told PTI from Mumbai.

On the back of these expansions and about 22-23% growth expected in the topline, the company is looking to touch a turnover of Rs 2,400 crore in FY07, he added.

Ceat had registered a turnover of Rs 1,950 crore last fiscal placing it in the fourth position in the Indian tyre industry after MRF, Apollo and JK Tyre.

Chowdhary said the Sri Lankan plant, which is a greenfield unit, has been set up through a joint venture company. "This unit will have a production capacity of 25,000 tyres per month, and has been set up at an investment of about 32 crore Sri Lankan rupees," he added.