Apollo to invest €19 m to expand PCR capacity

ERJ staff report (SS) Mumbai, India -- Apollo Tyres has announced that it will invest Rs 1080 million (€19 million) in the next fiscal to raise production capacity for passenger car radial (PCR) tyres from 300 000 to 450 000 per month at its plant in Limda, to serve both the domestic and overseas markets.

The company's current production is just over 10 000 tyres a day, and it aims to raise this to 15 000 over the course of the coming year.

A spokeswoman for Apollo told ERJ, in a 17 Dec email that the company is raising production in order to “service our increased presence in the Indian PCR segment as well as cater to rising export demand.”

“Limda is our flagship plant, definitely the best and largest in South Asia. Here the other capacity that is being added as a brown field is our new OTR production unit,” added the spokeswoman.

The company has set itself the target of generating $2000 million (€1390 million) revenue by 2010 from over $1000 million.

The spokeswoman said that the expansion is expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal, and that the company will use internal savings to fund the investment.

Apollo has four manufacturing units in India and two each in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The company's PCR journey began only in late 2000 with a product called Amazer XL. Apollo is now No. 3 in the Indian replacement market with a 16 percent share.