Apollo Tyres MD says US is company's next growth market

Apollo Tyres is looking break new ground, this time in the United States. The tyre manufacturer has decided to focus on the US as its next growth market, said Neeraj Kanwar, Vice-Chairman & MD, Apollo Tyres.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual summit in Davos, Kanwar said, “The US is a new market for us. That’s our next growth market.”

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He said the company has already launched the Fred Stein passenger car tyres, and more recently, Apollo truck tyres, in the US. “We’re getting a very good response from the market, the demand is there,” he added.

Kanwar said supply chain issues is the biggest issue facing companies the world over.“That’s something that we need to tackle — the main issue is to try and do more near-sourcing. So, if you need it for Europe, try and de-bottleneck Hungary and Holland plants; try and do as much as possible local production rather than moving everything from India,” Kanwar said.

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He further said the power crisis in India affected them badly. “We’ve already invested in a solar company in Chennai. So, all our plants in India now are looking at other sources of energy. So there will be some capex involved, but small amounts. We can become more solar-powered rather than be dependent on coal. That’s what we’re looking at. Overall I think it’s done by 5-10 percent in India, but I think we’ll be able to resolve it within the next few weeks,” he said.

Complications in Andhra Pradesh too have hurt the company. “The Andhra plant is brand new, and because of coal shortages, the state government has directed us to reduce production by 50 percent. So we are using Chennai to mix our rubber and move it into Andhra, but we are down and it’s hurting us,” he added.