Balkrishna Industries (BKT), one of India's and the world's leading off-highway tyre manufacturers, has announced plans to invest $100 million (Rs 728 crore) in a new manufacturing facility production site in the USA. The new facility will not only serve the US market but the entire American region.

This new production site will be the company's first manufacturing site outside of India. At present, Europe is BKT’s largest sales market accounting for more than half of the company’s overall turnover. On the other hand, the company says the Americas is becoming an increasingly interesting and expanding market.

The more-than-positive outlook for BKT led to the decision of establishing a new wholly-owned subsidiary company in the USA to set up a greenfield project for the construction of a new tyre manufacturing plant in the USA with a production capacity of about 20,000 MT (per annum) in the entire off-highway tyre segment. The target sales will  be both the replacement market and the OEMs in the USA. The remaining tyre demand will still be catered for directly from India.

The project has been approved by the board of Directors and was for the first time announced on the occasion of the TIA Hall of Fame Award Ceremony in Las Vegas on October 29, 2018. While the prestigious award was received by Rajiv Poddar, joint MD of BKT, on behalf of his father, Arvind Poddar, chairman and MD of BKT, the latter disclosed the company project in a video message.

The $100 million planned investment for the construction of a US tyre manufacturing plant  is presently at its initial stage. The company is looking for an appropriate terrain, which will be defined by the end of this year, and the land acquisition will take place by the end of the first quarter 2019. The project completion is expected by March 31, 2021.