Under invoicing and smuggling are directly hurting the growth of domestic Tyre industry and new investment in this sector, said M Shahid Hussain, Chief Executive Officer of General Tyre. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he demanded strict check on the import of tyre as the import trade price of tyres had been fixed at low level resulting million of rupees loss in term of revenue to the national exchequer.
Talking about the Tyre export from Pakistan, he said that export was increasing and the country might become a significant player in the region and gain reasonable market share of international trade. "Presently, General Tyre (GT) is exporting to Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen and the company is making efforts to capture new markets around the globe to further increase its exports. We are also in talks with many other countries in this connection," he said. The company's overall production of various kinds of tyres might see a slight growth to 1 .6m tyres by the end of current fiscal year as compared to 1.5m tyres produced in 2010-2011 as against a capacity to produce 2.25m tyres a year.
About future plans, he said motorcycle industry had emerged as a good market segment for the company as around 1.5 million two wheelers were produced annually in the country and in the current year the production of motorcycles was expected to be 1.8 million units, therefore, GT was going to tap the industry's potential by manufacturing motorcycle tyres, whose trial production would be commencing from the last quarter of the current year.
"We have already introduced a new tyre for CNG rickshaws after successful road tests, and this new tyre saves up to 20 per cent of gas as against currently competing tyres due to its special customised design and rolling resistance," said CE GT said. He said that a sharp drop in tractor production cast an adverse impact on GTR's tractor tyre production targets, otherwise the overall production of this segment could have been 1.7 to 1 .8 million by the end of the current fiscal year.
"Despite this crisis like situation, the company has been maintaining direct and indirect employment of 1,800 persons," he said and added that farm tractor making industry was on recovery path now followed by cut in GST rate to 5 from 16 per cent. Shahid said that GT's 60 per cent of total production went to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in Pakistan, while as the same time the company had been increasing local share as well as its exports of tyres. Since the production of the CNG rickshaws tyres was on limited basis at the moment, therefore it was not to be introduced for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), CEO said.
While predicting future demand, he said that overall road conditions of the country had improved as compared to the previous years and new modern designs in passenger car radial tyres were being introduced compatible with international standards to meet the varying end consumer demand. Considerable improvements had also been made in the quality and durability of the Farm Tyres which already command a premium in the Pakistan market owing to their performance, he said. He further said that General Tyre was going to start campaign to further enhance the corporate improve image of the company in general and ultimately increase sales.
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