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Tire giant Ceat A senior official said the company aims to increase its production capacity to around 14,000 tons per day in the next 18 A month to meet the growing demand in the domestic and international markets. The demand for RPG in the domestic market is expected in the coming quarters. demand for the Group’s flagship product will accelerate. In these regions, COVID-19 As the outbreak improves, the Company has seen a pick-up in demand from several export markets.

The company, which manufactures a range of tires for two-wheelers, passenger cars and commercial vehicles, plans to invest around 100 expansion projects Rs 100 crore of capex in the current fiscal.

Anant Goenka, Managing Director, Ceat He said, “Our total production is around 1,100 tons per day and we will look at increasing the capacity to 1,300-14,000 tons per day in the next one and a half years.”

He noted that the company has already embarked on major investments to increase the production capacity of its various plants.

“We have announced an investment of Rs 320 crore in the Chennai passenger car plant and the plant has been ready for the last one year and capacity utilization is at a good level.

“We have also invested around Rs 10 crore in expanding the off-highway tire segment and Rs 120 a crore in midday tires for trucks. So various investments are in the pipeline,” Goenka said.

In the current financial year, the company plans to invest around $1,000 In order to increase capacity, Rs 100 crore.

Goenka pointed out that the first quarter was challenging for the company due to lower demand due to the second wave of COVID-19.

“It was a tough quarter from two perspectives. First, the economy slowed down significantly in April and May due to various embargoes and restrictions.” He said, “Automobile companies were also hit as their plants were closed for several weeks.”

Prices of various basic raw materials, including rubber, were another major challenge for the company in the June quarter, Goenka said, adding, “We are raising prices to compensate for this, but this is not in line with the current situation.” Material inflation. ‘ He added.

Goenka said things started to improve in June and were very close to normal in July. He added that the company is working hard to control the cost of inflation and that discretionary costs are significantly lower.

Commenting on the business outlook for the remaining fiscal year, he said, “We are very optimistic about the recovery in demand. the June-July period was close to normal. The situation is much better, especially in the passenger car and two-wheeler segments, but in the commercial vehicle segment, it will take a longer time for the weak demand to recover.

Goenka said margins will come under pressure in the second quarter.

He added: “We hope to compensate for this by raising prices between July and September. We think the second half of the fiscal will be much better than the first half as overall demand stabilizes to normal levels,” he added.

Goenka said the only concern here is the coronavirus situation.

“Will there be a third wave? And if so, how bad will it be? My view is that even if there is a third wave, it won’t be like the second wave because the vaccination process has already begun,” he noted.

Goenka said the company’s business in overseas markets has grown as coronaviruses have improved.

The Mumbai-based company currently has about 80 These export revenues account for about 12-13% of the company’s total revenues.

Goenka noted that exports are an important part of the company’s overall business plan.

“At the moment, we are focusing on some regions that are very important to us, such as Europe. We recently entered Germany with passenger car tires, and the U.S. is very important in the off-highway tire segment. We are a very important market.

“Another important region is Southeast Asia, which is our main area of focus. We are trying to sell in these markets despite overcapacity.”

Asked if the company has any plans to enter new markets, Goenka said: Right now we are up to 70-80 countries/regions for exports, so our focus is on penetrating these markets rather than adding more countries/regions.

He noted that export revenues are expected to increase in the current financial year. ‘

However, demand in the domestic market will continue to be strong,” Goenka said. Founded in 1958, Ceat is one of India’s leading tire brands and the flagship company of the RPG Group.