Japanese tyre major Bridgestone Corporation has chalked out a Rs 2,600-crore investment plan for its new plant at Chakan in Maharashtra. The proposed facility will be its largest in the country. The company is also busy ramping up capacity at its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh. Talking to FE?s Shweta Bhanot, Hiromi Tanigawa, managing director, Bridgestone India Pvt Ltd, said the company would be getting into radial tyre production extensively once the Chakan plant commences production in 2013. The company is set to enter the commercial radial tyre business later this year. Excerpts:
The radial tyre plant in Chakan goes on stream from January 2013. Is it not too late considering the kind of domestic demand, specifically for truck and bus radials?
It is late, but the delay will not have an impact. We are setting up our second plant in the country after 14 years. The new plant will cater to the increasing demand for passenger car radial tyre and truck and bus radial tyre. To be specific, it is for the truck and bus radial tyres, where we are not present now, in terms of production out of India. We meet demand for truck and bus radial tyre largely by imports. There is a huge untapped market here. We were, till recently, importing truck and bus radial tyres from Japan and Thailand. But, the duty on Thailand products made it unviable and now we are getting it from Japan. Local production of radial tyres will help us cater to the demand easily.
We will start producing truck and bus radial tyres at Pithampur plant from 2011 and later Chakan plant will also be added. The Pithampur plant has a capacity of 15,000 units per day. By the end of 2020, the Chakan plant will have a capacity of 10,000 units of passenger car, truck and bus radial tyres.
What is the kind of investments planned for India?
We have already announced Rs 2,600-core investment for the greenfield Chakan plant. The investment will be made over the next five years. We will also be closing an Rs 1,000-crore investment in the Pithampur plant by end of this year. In future, we will look at expansion and will make more investments as and when required.
Will you look at integration once the Chakan plant commences operations in 2013?
The two plants will continue to operate separately and deal in similar products. We have not taken any decision on integrating operations.
Any plans to exports from India?
Our focus is on domestic market and most of the products will be for India. We will consider the possibility of exports, but not at the moment. We want to have a sustainable double-digit growth in the Indian market.