Leading tyre manufacturer, Apollo Tyres has announced setting up its first Greenfield plant outside India in Hungary at the cost of €475 million. A Greenfield plant means setting up plant from scratch.

The investment will be made over a period of five years over to set up new facility in the new industrial zone near Gyongyoshalasz, Hungary.

Once completed, the plant will have a capacity to produce 5.5 million passenger car & light truck (PCLT) tyres and 675,000 heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) tyres per annum. This facility will produce both, Apollo and Vredestein branded tyres, and will cater to the entire European market, and will complement Apollo Tyres’ existing facility in the Netherlands.

The company will soon start the process of applying for necessary permissions and licences to set up the facility. Similarly, the process towards Environmental Impact Assessment will be started soon. The construction of this plant is expected to start in the spring of 2015 and the first tyre is likely to roll out in early 2017.

Commenting on this decision, Neeraj Kanwar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Apollo Tyres Ltd, said, “Our aim is to create a benchmark manufacturing facility, which would further increase our competitive strength in the European market.” Similarly, Peter Szijjarto, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Hungary, said, “Apollo’s Hungarian investment is an important step in the re-industrialisation of Hungary.”

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