CEAT Kelani announces 125% increase in TBR tyre production

CEAT Kelani Holdings has announced another significant increase in production that will more than double the number of Truck Bus Radial (TBR) tyres reaching the domestic market by June this year, further supporting the national effort to reduce dependence on imports and conserve foreign exchange.

The Company said production of the CEAT Winmile AW in the 10.00 R 20 size widely used on trucks, prime movers, and buses will, in two phases of expansion, increase from 18,000 tyres a year to 40,200 a year. This gives CEAT the ability to supply 42 per cent of the local requirement for these tyres.

Incidentally, the CEAT Winmile AW tyre is the only Truck Bus Radial tyre produced in Sri Lanka, and is the result of a phased execution of a Rs 3 billion investment begun by the Company three years ago to expand product range, capacity and quality across multiple tyre categories. CEAT’s ground-breaking TBR production facility commenced production in April 2019 and the current expansion entailed the commissioning three more tyre presses, the Company said.

The increase in TBR production at the CEAT Kelani manufacturing complex in Kelaniya comes hot on the heels of an increase in production of passenger car radial (PCR) tyres for rim sizes ranging from 12 to 14. Phase 1 of this increase has added 72,000 tyres a year to the Company’s radial tyre inventory, while Phase 2, expected to come on stream in May 2021, will add another 100,000 radial tyres per annum.