Last month, Autocar Professional had revealed that tyre manufacturer Continental had begun production of radial truck tyres for the India market at its Modipuram plant.

A fortnight after start of production, the company formally launched its radial truck tyres at an event in New Delhi today. Passenger car and SUV tyre production will follow by end-2014 from the same Modipuram facility.

After acquiring Indian tyre manufacturer Modi in 2011, Continental has been steadily growing its presence in India with a dealer network of more than 1,400 outlets and a sales and customer service team spread across 70 cities. The plant will have an initial annual production capacity of 220,000 radial truck tyres that will be further ramped up in line with demand.

“India is the second largest market for truck tyres in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) and we strongly believe that our premium technology products, manufactured locally and distributed through our Indian market organisation, will make Continental a preferred partner in the tyre replacement and original equipment business,” said Andreas Esser, head of the Commercial Vehicle Tires business, Continental.

Investing in local production capacities is part of Continental’s strategy to diversify its global manufacturing footprint and expand business in growing markets, such as India. Continental has invested 50 million euros (Rs 413 crore) for the construction of a new production unit with machinery for making radial tyres. The company also brought experienced staff from some of its other international production sites to India to train local employees on the new machinery and production techniques. Over 100 local employees were also sent overseas to the international production sites in Germany, Romania, China and Malaysia for training in radial tyre production and technology.

“We firmly believe that the personal training of our local staff through experienced experts from other production sites is a key factor for the successful ramp-up of a new tyre plant. The strong manufacturing network supports excellence in operation, especially the case for the switch from producing bias tyres to radial tyres, where the technology involved is more complex and requires additional know-how,” added Thierry Wipff, head of Manufacturing Commercial Vehicle Tires at Continental.

Continental’s initial radial tyre product portfolio for India covers the goods, people, and construction segments. In the goods segment, the HSR2 steer tyre and the HDR2 drive tyre will offer higher mileage and fuel economy. For the people segment, Continental has launched a dedicated coach tyre, while the construction tyres HSX2 and HDX2 complete the product portfolio.

The Indian truck tyre replacement market has a volume of approximately 14 million units per year, out of which almost 4 million units are radial tyres, whereas the other 10 million are bias tyres. Over the last five years, the market has not only grown by around 24 percent, but has also seen a strong shift towards radials. It is expected that radialisation will gain further momentum in the next few years.

Continental, which saw provisional sales of around €33.3 billion (Rs 275,557 crore) in 2013, is also a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tyres, and technical elastomers.

The Tyre division recorded sales of €9.7 billion (Rs 80,267 crore) in 2012. The Commercial Vehicle Tyre business is claimed to be one of the largest manufacturers of truck, bus and commercial specialty tyres worldwide.