Dunlop Eyeing 40% Utilisation At Sahaganj

Dunlop India Ltd is aiming at a 40 per cent capacity utilisation at its Sahaganj unit in the initial phase of holding operations to enable the company break even.

Company sources said this will also allow additional time for circulation of working capital. The manufacturing operations are being planned in an intermittent manner comprising two or three runs of manufacturing per month.

A quality assurance team from the national defence services recently visited the plant for process and product approval of the company's aero tyres (aviation tyres). Twenty four pieces of aero tyres have been made ready and, company sources said, the inspection results were satisfactory. Full-fledged production of aero tyres will commence from Monday.

 

Dunlop president Murli Dhar Shukla was unable to comment on the outcome of the defence team's visit as he was away in Chennai. Vice-president B Sen Sharma declined to comment despite repeated attempts.

The company hopes to bring 318.55 tonne of finished product into the market in the first phase. Of this, 12 tonne (555 pieces) of aero tyres would have to be supplied to the government. In addition to this, 124 tonne of truck tyres, 11 tonne of tractor tyres, 22 tonne of industrial products, 16 tonne of fan &V-belts, 11.8 tonne of metalastic, 0.25 tonne of C/E, 30 tonne of OTR and 6.7 tonne of jeep, car, ADV, front and light tractors and 270 pieces of tubes (OTR) will be produced.

Intuc general secretary RK Neogy said that resumption of work at the Sahaganj unit had lifted the spirits of workers and that they had full confidence in Shukla and his team.

Dunlop had announced the commencement of production at both its plants in Sahaganj (West Bengal) and Ambattur in Tamil Nadu from last Saturday. For over two years, work at both the plants had been suspended.

The suspension was lifted after intense negotiations and meetings with the unions on February 7 at Ambattur and March 11 at Sahaganj.