JK Tyre plans to tap new markets

Tyre major JK Tyre and Industries, a part of the Rs 28,000-crore JK Organisation, has aggressive marketing plans in place.

In an interaction with DH, JK Tyre and Industries Chairman and Managing Director Raghupati Singhania said, the continuing global geo-political and unstable economic conditions, leading to weakening of currencies in potential markets, will continue creating new challenges for the export business.

“To meet these challenges in global market, JK Tyre has aggressive market plans in place. We plan to build business in new geographic regions, which include the US, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe,” Singhania said.

“JK Tyre is a leading premium bias tyre brand in global markets and this is being leveraged in building the radial tyre business. Some of the activities include new product lines in radials, creating new marketing hubs in the Americas, Africa and SE Asia. This should help raise total exports from all plants by about 25-30% over the previous year,” he added.

JK Tyre has a global presence in about 100 countries across six continents, backed by production support from 12 plants — nine in India and three in Mexico. “In FY2015-16, the overall export of tyres from JK Tyre declined due to the falling economy, and currency depreciation in Brazil, Venezuela, Egypt, Nigeria, and few other African markets. In the Middle East too, the exports have fallen owing to rising political instability and conflicts,” Singhania added.

“The past year witnessed huge supply of low-priced radial tyres from China flooding into global markets, impacting JK Tyre’s exports from India and Mexico. The industry de-growth was 2% with 12% in truck, and 12% in the PCR (passenger car radial tyre) segment,” Singhania said.

The total international business of the company, in all brands, was about Rs 1,000 crore in FY2015-16.

Chinese imports have been growing over the years, and at present Chinese tyre companies are holding 41% of the truck-bus radial replacement market. They have grown 45% year-on-year, compared with last year, Singhania added.

When asked on the initiatives that the government should take, Singhania opined, “In 45 days the US imposed anti-dumping duties, but here in India, we are sitting on that for last 16 months, and things are still under process. So I think, as a country, we have to learn to act faster, and it is not right to think it is protection, it is saving your turf, it is about providing you a level-playing field.”