Chennai: Tire giant JK Tires, which has started using Indian brands for the first time by some New York cabbies in an effort to boost sales in the automotive market, is looking to expand its export business using its Mexican plant. The tire market leader has been pushing aftermarket sales and exports to make up for the downturn in the domestic auto market, company executives said.

JK Tyres President Arun Kumar Bajoria “Our export focus has helped us grow our business, with exports growing 23% in fiscal 2013-14.” 20%. The Mexican branch is also entering the JK New York cab market for the first time. “We already have Nissan and Volkswagen as OEMs for our Mexican operations As a result, for the first time, Nissan Taxi New York started using JK tires made in Mexico,” Bajoria says. “Last fiscal year, we added five new export markets. We operate in more than 100 markets. “Improved exports, increased share of aftermarket sales, and lower raw material prices led to JK’s highest ever profit in 2013-14, with net profit up 29% to Rs263 crore. Natural rubber prices hovered between Rs 148-149 per kg for most of the last fiscal Rs 150 per kg is now below Rs 150 per kg. While prices of nylon fabrics and crude oil have risen, prices of key raw materials such as carbon black and synthetic rubber have also come down. The impact on raw material prices is about 3%, but since raw materials account for about 70% of the net selling price, the actual impact is slightly more than 2%,” said Bajoria.

Most tire companies have been focusing on exports and replacement demand as the demand for tires from OEMs has been affected by the decline in automobile production. Bjoria said, “Domestic market share of various substitutes covers truck and bus radial tires (34%) market share) to light commercial vehicles, automotive radial tires, agricultural track tires and off-highway tires.” “Strong growth in demand for tractors has once again drawn the market’s attention to the fact that we doubled our annual capacity in 2013 14 and now produce more than 230,000 per year,” he added Taiwan,” he added.

Currently, the OEM and replacement market segmentation and export market segmentation for radial tires is about 50:50, 81:19 for truck radial tires and in favor of replacement/export market. JK is currently investing Rs 143 crore in its Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai to increase its radial capacity for trucks and buses by 0.8 million units, taking it to 1.2 million units. It has also increased its radial capacity by 1.5 lakh vehicles taking the total capacity in Chennai to 4.5 lakh. “The total tire capacity of our plant is 2.31 lakh truck and bus radial tires and 9.7 lakh car radial tires,” Bajoria said.