|
|
Kesoram chairman B.K. Birla at the company’s AGM in Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury
|
Calcutta, July 11: Kesoram Industries — the BK Birla group flagship — has decided to go slow on its car radial tyre project at Balasore in Odisha, following a downturn in the industry.
“You can say it is in a bit of a limbo,” Kesoram Industries’ CEO (tyre business) Arvind Singh said after the company’s annual general meeting.
“We are going slow on the project because of difficult market conditions. We have already invested Rs 350-400 crore in the project, which is being re-assessed on a monthly basis,” Singh said.
The project was initially scheduled to be completed by 2011-12, with a production capacity of 80 tonnes per day.
The project, which entails a cost of Rs 700 crore, will impart a competitive edge to Birla Tyre.
“We will do it. It is a matter of time,” he said.
Kesoram had restructured its tyre business last year by putting in place a new management team, led by a CEO and a small core team, which has taken charge from the second half of 2011-12.
Last fiscal, the firm’s truck and bus tyre market grew just 2.5 per cent. It bled heavily in the second and third quarter before trimming losses by half in the fourth.
The first quarter of this fiscal promises to be better, Singh said.
|
