CEAT to roll out 28,000 tyres from new unit, invest Rs 3,000 cr in 2-3 yrs

15-20% of output from new plant will be exported. company is already selling to 90-plus countries

Tyre major CEAT is planning to invest about Rs 3,000 crore over the next 2-3 years. The company's new plant at Tamil Nadu, inaugurated today, will roll out 28,000 passenger car tyres a day and will be the firm's largest going forward.

The proposed Rs 3,000 crore is for all CEAT plants including the ones at Chennai, Halol and Nagpur. This is lower than the Rs 3,500-crore capex that the company had earlier planned.

Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the new factory inauguration, Anant Goenka, Managing Director, CEAT Tyres Ltd said the company has committed investment of Rs 4,000 crore for the new facility near Chennai, of which Rs 1,400 crore has already been invested and the balance will be invested over the next few years.

The new plant will roll out about 28,000 passenger car tyres per day when it reaches full capacity in two years time, in phase-I. The Rs 1,400 crore investment will generate revenue of about Rs 2,000 crore, he said.

Nearly 15-20 per cent of the capacity will be for export markets. The company already caters to 90 plus countries from its other plants.

At present the unit employs 300 people. This would go up to 1,000 and 40 per cent would be women.

Goenka said there is enough space at the plant site for further expansion and for rolling out tyres for commercial vehicles.

"Going forward it will be the company's largest plant and will manufacture tyres for the future including electric vehicles, high-end cars and for European markets," said Goenka.

Today the company has six manufacturing facilities: Bhandup, Nasik, Halol, Nagpur, Ambernath and Sri Lanka.

CEAT's PAT stood at Rs 53 crore during the third quarter ended December 2019 as compared to Rs 52 crore, a year ago. Revenue from operations grew by 1.8 per cent to Rs 1,762 crore from Rs 1,730 crore.