Apollo Tyres to invest Rs2,000 crore in capacity expansion

New Delhi: Apollo Tyres has unveiled plans to put in Rs2,000 crore over the coming three year period to enhance its domestic and international production capacities.

Apollo Tyres had earlier in January this year accepted an invitation by the Hungarian government for setting up a tyre manufacturing facility in that country. (See: Apollo Tyres to set up car radial facility in Hungary)

Apollo Tyres will also set up a plant in Chennai, as well as enhance the capacity of its Vadodara plant.

According to Apollo Tyres Chief of India Operations Satish Sharma, the company shall invest Rs2,000 crore over next three years, including €200 million for its upcoming plant in Hungary.

He said around Rs1,350 crore of the investement would go to setting up a facility in Hungary, for which the company had bought about 45 hectares of land earlier in the year.

The Hungarian plant would act as company's hub to address the demand from passenger car radial tyre buyers in Europe, North America as well as other countries.

As part of the domestic capacity expansion, Apollo Tyre's Vadodara plant will see its capacity of passenger car tyre go up from the existing 10,000 tyres a day to 15,000 tyres a day, by around mid-2009.

The company will also enhance its truck and bus radial tyres capacity at Vadodara from the existing 300 tyres a day to around 1,100 tyres a day over the same timeframe.