JK Tyre embarks on modernisation
Along with the vehicle manufacturers, the tyre manufacturers also are modernising their products. They also are working with tyre monitoring devices that are fitted on tyres. One such thing being experimented by JK Tyre is Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), which is going to be a very important element. This will also give indication on the vehicle dashboard, when the Initial Tread Depth (ITD) changes. In high performance cars, if the tyre pressure goes down, the same gets reflected on the dashboard.
“But if you look at India, it is a very price sensitive market, and all such new technologies are not cheap at the moment unless they are made in bulk. One TPMS in 1 tyre will cost almost Rs 280. Why TPMS is so important is because if the tyre is monitored well, fuel consumption will go down. In the long run, the tyres will have electronic components wherever they will offer benefit to the end-user,” Arun Kumar Bajoria, Director and President (International Operations), JK Tyres, told Auto Components India.
For TPMS there are no OEMs. JK Tyre is developing it. “All our people are specialists from different spheres and we have been sending them constantly to international exhibitions to understand the latest trends. We are in discussions with 2 largest manufacturers involved in TPMS. These are all constantly developing procedures, and you need to keep looking for devices which will be beneficial for tyres,” he said.
On the impact of the multifaceted modernisation on tyres, Bajoria said, trucks will keep becoming modern. BS IV is in. Price of truck will go up by at least Rs 2 lakh. The government is pushing for second legislation on overloading to protect the roads built at exorbitant cost. The roads
that are expected to last for a decade will be damaged in 2 years because of overloading. The regulations have to be implemented. Why does not the driver have an air-conditioned cabin in a truck. He must have a comfortable cabin and a spare seat where the spare driver rests. Manufacturers are already developing modern cabins, but then the price is a big constraint. All such developments will certainly come and put an additional demand on tyres which need constant upgradation as well in terms of life and economy.
Radialisation
Today radialisation in commercial vehicles has crossed 40%. A decade ago, it was not even in single digits. It is catching on very fast now. There are 2 associated advantages. Firstly, the initial tread mileage is very high. When compared to bias tyres which clock almost 70,000-80,000 km tyre life, a radial tyre can go up to almost 1.2 lakh kms. If driven well without overloading and with good maintenance, they can go up to 1.4 lakh kms. A better mileage of up to 10% is possible. There is also fuel saving.
JK Tyre does a lot to educate the CV community about the advantages of radial tyres. The difference between the cost of a bias tyre and radial tyre is almost 22%. If the Cost Per Km (CPKM), is taken into account, the initial investment is returned in a very reasonable time. “We
do have activities and camps, for driver training at JK tyre,” he said.
Tyre production
Though the ATMA data says the tyre production in India has gone down 20% in last 1 year, JK was not affected much. One of the reasons for the slow down was demonetisation. “I am hoping in Q1, FY18, things should start improving. JK Tyre has not gone down by 20%, and might stay flat in that terms,” Bajoria said.
About the dumping of tyres from China, he said that “those tyres were coming in through hawala transactions. A lot of malpractices and mala fide intentions were going on. They were actually giving tyres which were often priced below the actual raw material prices. In addition to that, they were not giving any kind of guarantees and evading taxes also. However, from a figure of almost 1,50,000 tyres per month, their sales have gone down by almost 50%. Though there has been a bounce back, I think things will be better for the tyre industry soon,” he said.
Getting anti-dumping duties on Chinese tyres has also been tedious, he added. ”We have been requesting the government for long to impose anti dumping duties on Chinese tyres since they have been dumping tyres at unremunerative prices. There are too much underhand and overhand invoicing. Also, along with safety getting compromised, there has been a revenue loss to the government since they were evading taxation structure as well. They are also not offering service standards, but the consumers are being taken for a ride though they were getting tyres cheaper,” the Director said.
Raw material
Procurement of rubber, the important raw material for
tyre, is a big challenge. Today the demand of rubber in India is almost 10.5 lakh tonnes. Production of rubber in India is not more than 6.5 lakh tonnes. So the rest of it has to be imported. But the imported rubber is more expensive than Indian rubber. “This is a very sensitive subject and we have been requesting the government to work on the inverted duty structure. For importing rubber, the tax rate is 20%; but import a finished tyre, the import duty is 9%. This is weird. The US is considered to be a champion of free economy, but they have imposed 37% duty. Everyone tries to protect their own economy.”
Bajoria said that the implementation of GST would end a lot of wrong practices. Today there are various complications due to the competition among the States. All that will be regulated to a very great extent. “I think we should get a boost in the sales as well,” he said.
JK tyre has 12 manufacturing plants, 9 in India and 3 in Mexico. It employs over 15,000 tyre specialists in various disciplines like tyre engineering, designing, prototyping, testing and manufacturing lines. “We have really built a good trustworthy brand the `JK Tyre’. TBR is a segment where we are market leaders for the last 2 decades. We pioneered with steel belted radials in the country and then moved on to all steel truck radials. We have already achieved a landmark of manufacturing 10 million TBR tyres. We have invested heavily on product development to make right tyres for various applications,” he concluded.