Tyre major Yokohama India is targeting a significant scaling up of its Indian operations with both capacity expansion and foray into new segments. The company is targeting a four-fold increase in its offhighway business this calendar year even as it nearly doubles its passenger car radial (PCR) production capacity.
"We are investing $82 million in increasing passenger car radial production from 2.5 million units to 4.5 million units per annum by 2025," said Harinder Singh, MD & CEO, Yokohama India.
As for the offhighway tyre segment, with India's focus on infrastructure there is a "good opportunity and we are scaling up the India operation with a plan to do four times in CY24 of what we did in CY23 in terms of offhighway tyres," he added.
The PCR production expansion is part of Yokohama's strategy to enter the OE market where it will supply tyres to vehicle manufacturers. Currently the company only focuses on the aftermarket.
“From 2025 onwards, we will start getting into the OE part of the business," said Singh. The PCR tyre industry aftermarket, he said, has grown 3% from CY22 to CY23 but "our growth is 15% and last year we did 2.5 million units primarily serving the aftermarket. The scaling up of India operations is in line with our strategic plan of getting into the OE segment in PCR," he added. Yokohama India's parent supplies to vehicle makers worldwide but "production constraints in India" prevented this foray earlier.
The company will primarily focus on the India market for its PCR tyres because the "production capacity is just enough for local requirements," added Singh. In the offhighway segment though it exports 95% of its production.
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