Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT), one of the leading off-highway tire manufacturers headquartered in India, hits again the headlines with its announcement of a $100 milion construction project for a new production site to serve not only the U.S. markets but the entire American region. This new production site will be the multinational group’s first manufacturing site outside of India.
It is commonly known that Europe is presently BKT’s largest sales market accounting for more than half of the company’s overall turnover. Yet, the Americas are becoming an increasingly interesting and expanding market. The more than positive outlook led to the decision of establishing a new wholly-owned subsidiary company in the USA to set up a greenfield project for the construction of a new tire manufacturing plant in the USA designed for a yearly production capacity of about 20,000 MT in the entire off-highway tire segment. Target markets are both the replacement market and OEMs in the USA. The remaining tire demand will still be catered for directly from India.
The project has been approved by the Board of Directors and was for the first time announced on the occasion of the TIA Hall of Fame Award Ceremony in Las Vegas on October 29, 2018. While the prestigious award was received by Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director of BKT, on behalf of his father, Arvind Poddar, Chairman and Managing Director of BKT, the latter disclosed the company project in a video message.
The project for the construction of a U.S. tire manufacturing plant providing for a total capital expenditure of approximately $100 million U.S. dollars is presently at its initial stage. The company is looking for an appropriate terrain, which will be defined by the end of this year, so that land acquisition will take place by the end of the first quarter 2019. Project completion is expected by March 31, 2021.
