BKT’s plant in Bhuj to be fully operational by third quarter of 2016, to enhance capacity by 75 per cent

BKT is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of off-highway tyres. The company has wide product range with more than 2,300 SKU’s (Stock Keeping Units) and is has been focused on becoming one stop shop for all off-highway tyre solutions. With more than 25 accomplished years of global leading presence in the off-highway tyres segment, Balkrishna Industries (BKT) is undoubtedly one such company.

Keeping up with demand
In the last quarter of this calendar year, BKT saw rise in demand and anticipates it will continue to grow. The company also expects some new announcements from the new government, especially in infrastructure industry. Infrastructure doesn’t mean only to the road building; it could be roads, bridges, power, irrigation and so forth. “As the new government announced that infrastructure is going to be its core sector, the momentum of growth will continue in coming years,” informs Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director, BKT. “We are expecting a growth of about 15 per cent in 2015.”

BKT’s Bhuj plant
Until 2012, BKT had three state-of-the-art production plants for manufacturing tires. The production started in 1987 in the landmark Aurangabad plant. In 2001, the company set up its second production site at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan.

BKT recently initiated production from its 4th plant at Bhuj, a Greenfield facility in Gujarat. The project complex comprises of about 300 acres of land in the Gujarat region, just a few kilometres away from the Mundra port offering logistical advantages in transport of raw materials.
“We are expecting that the Bhuj plant will be fully operational by third quarter of 2016. It will enhance our total capacity by 75 per cent,” informed Mr Poddar.

The company has invested over $ 375 million in this plant. It will add about 120,000 tonnes per year in addition to its 180,000 tonnes obtained from the other three plants.

State-of-the-art products
Quality conscious users who adhere to stringent conformity standards in Europe and America prefer BKT as their supplier, thus implying that every BKT product is superior most in creation and delivers expected performance.

This is achieved by using the foremost quality of raw materials that are processed through the most advanced technology creating a BKT product. “Each product passes over 450 stages of tests. The result of this rigorous practice being that BKT products are known for their reliability and have the lowest claim ratio in the industry,” informs Mr Poddar.

Construction and mining segment
BKT is working hard on the domestic and agriculture industry and built its independent team. In fact, the company has developed two ranges for domestic agricultural applications which included bias as well as radiant. “BKT has already opened in seven states and will be spreading in more states, slowly but steadily,” adds Mr Poddar.

Driving tomorrow
Indian tyre companies are no longer just manufacturing tyres for commercial vehicles but the market has expanded encapsulating high-end consumers with heavy OE needs for industrial, construction and mining purposes. A company like BKT is a huge factor in this growth with its selling chains covering almost the entire world. However, as they say, with great success comes great responsibility.