After a negative growth for the last two years, the exports of truck and bus tyres surged from April 2007 to January 2008. According to data released by the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers? Association, bus and truck tyre exports went up by 8.9% to 2.07 million units against 1.9 million units during the same period last year. Also, the total revenue from exports grew 4.6% to Rs 1,735 crore in April-January 2007-08 from Rs 1,659 crore in the corresponding period last year. This despite the fact that the margins of various tyre manufacturers were under pressure after the rupee appreciated 8% since April 2007.
?Currently, very few countries are manufacturing bus tyres in bulk and India and China are the two major producers. However, the fact that Indian truck tyres have a very good quality and price image in the overseas markets vis-?-vis Chinese tyres, there has been a huge demand of Indian cross-ply tyres in the last one year,? says Arnab Banerjee, vice-president, sales and marketing, Ceat Tyres Ltd. The company is exporting bus tyres to over 110 countries and expects to close the financial year with over Rs 500 crore of exports.
Agrees HK Chopra, adviser (international sourcing and sales), JK Tyres. ?There has been a tremendous increase in demand and with the potential to manufacture these old technology tyres in bulk and that, too, the premium quality nylon tyres, Indian manufacturers have an edge over others.?
?Moreover, China has substantially cut down the production of bus tyres after they did not match the quality that was demanded,? explains Chopra. The company claims to have exported about 5,97,000 truck tyres during this period.
After a healthy 12.2% export growth in 2004-05, the industry saw a dip of 3.8% in 2005-06 ,going further down to 5.5% in 2006-07 due to the entry of cheap Chinese tyres in West Asia, the Far East, Africa, North America and South America at that time.
Says an industry expert, ?Initially, the low-priced Chinese tyres grabbed a big part of the global market but, gradually, buyers realised the premium quality of Indian tyres, and this resulted in a bounce-back in demand.?
