That’s the weight of tyres Indian manufacturer BKT plans to make each year from 2026, when annual turnover is forecast to hit US$2.0 billion.
BKT’s business has increased by 49% compared to the pre-pandemic period and expansion at the company’s prestigious Bhuj production plant in India will play a major role in increasing tyre numbers.
The surface area covered by the Bhuj plant is forecast to increase to 323ha by the end of this year.
When the first one rolled off the production line in 2012, the site covered 123ha. More than US$500 was invested to transform the greenfield site, which has since grown in stages to 258ha in 2022.
More space means more staff (4,776 at Bhuj at the end of 2022) and extra space to install the new machines needed to increase the volumes. These have risen from 92 tonnes a day in 2015 to the best-ever of 436 tonnes a day by the end of last year.
The expansion work also included a dedicated rubber track manufacturing plant, and there is plenty of space for the six different test tracks. These include circuits for performance tests on a variety of different surfaces in dry and wet conditions, to measure parameters such as traction, handling, comfort and soil compaction.
A further strategic choice at the Bhuj site was to invest in its own carbon black plant, which came into operation in 2017. Large year, total annual production reached 165,600 tonnes.
Operational since 2017, the carbon black plant is expected to produce 198,600 tonnes this year.
“People have asked me if all this was really necessary, so much in such a short time,” comments Rajiv Poddar, joint managing director at BKT, who adds that growth has always been in step with demand.
“Global tyre demand is growing and we see no signs of it slowing down over the next five years. The journey we started out on at Bhuj in 2012 was never a return journey, but one to prepare ourselves to discover the future.”
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