A solid tyre plant to be set up:
Laugfs tyres for Aussie market
Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE
Sri Lanka is being considered as the “Capital City” of the solid
tyres to the international market, which accounts for 35% of the world
Solid Tyre manufacture and exports, out of which 23% is by Loadstar.
For the purpose of exporting solid tyre LCRL’s total investment for
the solid tyre plant, which includes plant machinery, infrastructure
development, pre-operational expenses a 2.43 hectares land has been
chosen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ananda Hadunge said.
He said that installation of plant and machinery is expected to
commence by early November this year and the facility will be ready for
commercial production early next year, he said.
The factory will manufacture and export solid tyres, since it has a
great potential in the international markets including USA, Canada and
Western Europe. With the reputation being the “Capital City” of solid
tyres it has all the requirements and standards to compete with any
global company in the world, he said.
According to Hadunge that once they start commercial operations they
will manufacture 12 tonnes of tyres for a day and after six months their
plan is to increase the capacity to 25 tonnes, which is roughly about
between 400 to 600 tyres per day for the global market.
Hadunge said their business strategy of the new venture of LCRL has a
number of advantages over the competitors to achieve cost effectiveness
and productivity due to its “Cost Leadership” in the market. Moreover it
will relentlessly focus on quality with the adoption of Total Quality
Management (TQM) concepts, CEO said.
Further, the company is also planning to invest for another solid
tyre plant in Australia to manufacture tyres for industrial and
construction type vehicles to penetrate in to other international
markets in the future, Hadunge said.
The Laugfs Holdings acquired the land, buildings and other
manufacturing facilities belonging to state owned Sri Lanka Rubber
Products Manufacturing and Export Corporation Ltd in late 2005.
One of the facilities acquired was an entity to manufacture three
wheeler tyres.
The acquired facility had much more factory floor capacity to
accommodate different production lines and the company, were evaluating
various investment options available to it.
After having evaluated all the options, the management decided to
invest on a project to manufacture and export of solid tyres. |