CEAT to open Rs 600 million radial plant

CEAT Kelani Holdings has invested Rs 600 million on a plant to produce high-end radial tyres. The plant has been built within the sprawling CEAT Kelani manufacturing complex at Kelaniya, enabling it to seamlessly augment production of CEAT branded tyres for the domestic and export markets, company sources said.

When production begins this month, CEAT Kelani will increase its radial tyre building and curing capacity by 70 percent, from 23,000 tyres per month to 39,000.

"This new investment represents a landmark in the growth and evolution of CEAT as one of Sri Lanka's top tyre brands, not only in terms of volume, but in terms of product range and quality as well," CEAT Kelani, Managing Director and CEO Raman Rajagopalan said.

"The addition of manufacturing capacity is accompanied by investments in new machinery and equipment that can ensure a quantum leap in quality improvements and products for new tyre categories that will move the brand up the value chain," he said. New technology for the new plant include the latest bead apexing machine, cap ply and cap strip machine and improved tyre building machines and curing presses to produce a new grade of high performance radials in larger sizes for high end cars, Rajagopalan said.

The use of segmented moulds instead of two-piece moulds will help manufacture high quality block-pattern radial tyres for high-end Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and off-road vehicles, CEAT Kelani Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Ravi Dadlani said, adding that the new plant will also produce key high end sizes such as the 235/70 R 16, the 195/65 R 15 and the 185/65 R 15.

Of CEAT's total monthly production of 1,450 tons, about 500 tons or a third is exported to markets in South Asia, the Middle East, the African continent and many other countries.