JK Tyres to increase prices by 2-4%

Owing to the exponential increase in the rubber prices, today the country's largest tyre manufacturer, JK Tyres & industries declared a hike of 2 to 4 per cent on its offerings which will be implemented by month end.

Mr. AS Mehta, Marketing Director, JK Tyre & Industries commented that a hike of 2 to 4 per cent on the products will come in action from the last week of Jan 2011. he added that the major reason behind this sudden increase in prices is the increased natural rubber prices which is the highest by now reaching a mark of Rs 220 per kg. He commented that it is becoming more and more difficult for the company to maintain profitable margin with this increasing input cost and that is the reason an increase in tyre prices is introduced by the company.

Addressing the third quarter result, Mr. Mehta said that the company is not expecting extreme better performance from that of 2nd quarter as the major growth in tyre manufacturing industry is observed in the last quarter where the buying of replacement is adjourned. He also added that company was able to perform good in past year by making sales of Rs 3,678 crore and it is expected to improve further in present and coming years.

JK Group is also working for its Chennai based manufacturing plant to enhance its production. The work will be done by the end of running year and expansion project will come in action then. The truck redials produced in the Chennai manufacturing plant will be increased by 4 lakh units annually with car radials being 25 lakh units after the investment of Rs 750 crore in the expansion project. The plant expansion project will bring a little hope for the country's employment ratio by employing 1,200 workers in the plant.

The Mysore based manufacturing unit of Vikrant Tyres has also been enhanced to produce 10 lakh units as against earlier 8 lakh units. The manufacturing of Off The Road (OTR) tyres has already started in this Mysore plant and a major success was registered in the beginning of January 2011 by churning out a India's biggest OTR variety. The tyre was built with a height of 12 feet and weight of 3.5 tonnes. A total investment of Rs 120 crore was made in this OTR manufacturing process.

Read More on : Volkswagen Polo