Apollo Tyres will "sooner rather than later expand'' the production capacity at its Chennai plant, according to Satish Sharma, President – APMENA.

Sharma, who heads Apollo’s operations in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, said the ₹ 2,300-crore plant commissioned in 2010 produces about 5,200 tyres a day against an installed capacity of 6,000. The company has space to add about 30 per cent capacity at the unit.

Installed capacity

Apollo has a total installed capacity of about 1,400 tonnes a day of commercial and passenger vehicle tyres in India spread across four plants making it the largest manufacturer in these segments. There is headroom to increase the output by about 20 per cent at the current levels of capacity utilisation which will be fully tapped in two years.

In addition, it has a 195 tonnes a day capacity in the Netherlands and 90 tonnes in South Africa.

Strategy

Apollo is focussed on growing export markets. The company will be targeting OEMs abroad and the after market segment, apart from catering to the export share of domestic vehicle manufacturers. It is also diversifying into new areas particularly off road tyres to cater to agriculture and mining machinery, Sharma said.

The company has converted one tyre plant in Kerala to produce these tyres. It manufactures about 30 tonnes a day of various types spanning 60 SKUs with most of this getting exported to European markets. It plans to increase this to about 110 tonnes over the next year-and-a-half. This is a high margin segment, he said.

New factory

Apollo Tyres, which recently announced plans to set up a Greenfield tyre unit in Eastern Europe, will expand its Dutch brand Vredestein’s presence in Europe and in India, apart from strengthening Apollo.

It now exports 100,000 tyres a month under the Apollo brand to Europe. Vredestein in India targets high-end luxury cars, while Apollo is preferred in the popular and mid-sized car segment.