Birla tyres undecided on commissioning Odisha unit

Kolkata, July 11 (IANS) Birla Tyres said Wednesday it is yet to decide on when to commission its passenger car tyre making unit at Balasore in Odisha.

"We have not yet decided that by when the unit would be commissioned. We are considering the present market conditions," Chief Executive Arvind Singh told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting (AGM) of Kesoram Industries here.

Birla Tyres is a division of the B.K. Birla flagship Kesoram Industries.

"Last year was not good for tyre industry itself and we did not do that well either. These are the reasons why we are still not sure by when will we actually commission it," Singh added.

Once operational, the passenger car tyre making unit, which would entail a cost of around Rs.750 crore, is expected to have a capacity of 80 metric tonnes per day.

He said it would be wrong to say that the company had put the unit on hold.

"This unit has been on the anvil for quite sometime, but it would be wrong to say that we have put it on hold. We are assessing the equations every month to see how can we work this out," he said.

Singh said the company currently was focusing on utilising the full capacity of our existing units which makes truck, bus, two-wheeler and three-wheeler tyres.