Manufacturers seek anti-dumping duty on car radials from China. Overall, imports account for 40 per cent of the replacement market.
“Since tyres from China are almost 15 per cent cheaper than domestic brands, they almost dominate the replacement market here, and it's really worrisome,” said Mr Raghupati Singhania, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of JK Tyre & Industries Ltd.
The company's Chennai facility went on stream yesterday. Mr Singhania, who announced this today at a press conference here, said the company has managed to commission the unit well ahead of schedule.
The Rs 972-crore facility can produce 25 lakh passenger car radials and four lakh truck/bus radials. This is the company's sixth facility in the country, and the plan is to gradually ramp up capacity over a period.
Talking about the rubber price in India, he said though it has softened a bit now to hover around Rs 195-200 a kg, one could not be sure that it will sustain at this rate.
Besides reducing the import duty on rubber from the current 20 per cent, “the Government should do the spadework to expand the acreage of rubber plantation by exploring newer geographies such as Tripura and northern Karnataka”.