Ceat Tyres eyes export opportunities for speciality tyres in Europe, North America

Tyre maker Ceat is looking at export opportunities for its speciality tyres in Europe and North America, and is also exploring new markets for radial tyres for buses and trucks, a senior company executive said. The RPG Group company, which produce tyres for segments such as two- and three-wheelers, cars, buses, light commercial vehicles (LCVs), trucks and tractors, currently exports its range of products to over 100 countries.

The company has six manufacturing plants at Ambernath (for off-highway tyres), Bhandup, Nashik and Nagpur in Maharshtra, Halol in Gujarat and in Chennai.

"We are trying to make more inroads in the Europe and North American market for speciality sectors. We are also looking at new market for our bus and truck radial tyres," Ceat Tyres Ltd Chief Financial Officer Kumar Subbiah told .

He said the commissioning of Chennai plant in February this year will boost the company's export business, which generally accounts for 12-13 per cent of the overall revenue.

Ceat has a specialised subsidiary, Ceat Speciality, for off-highway tyres in domestic and international markets.

Stating that exports are picking up gradually, he said the recovery from the COVID-19 impact started happening in the later part of September quarter.

Earlier this week, the tyre maker reported over four-fold increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 182.18 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 43.64 crore in the July-September period of previous fiscal.

The company's revenue from operations during the second quarter stood at Rs 1,978.47 crore as compared to Rs 1,691.55 crore in the year-ago period.

During the quarter, it also commissioned the second phase of its Nagpur-based manufacturing facility with effect from August 24.

Subbiah attributed a rebound in replacement market demand, improvement in other two verticals -- exports and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) -- and better cost management to the good financial performance in the September quarter.

"We managed our supply situation better both from the manufacturing as well as servicing point of view. These are broad reasons why we have been able to give growth in the topline," he said. He said the demand has returned in the aftermarket segment, while for OEMs and exports, the demand is very close to where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he said, only time will tell if the demand is sustainable or not.

Subbah said the company has added capacity at its three plants in Halol, Chennai and Nagpur (two-wheelers) in anticipation of higher demand and to corner additional market share going forward.