BKT to expand manufacturing footprint in India

Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (BKT) approaches business a little differently than most tire manufacturers.

Instead of searching the globe for a carbon black supplier, BKT builds its own plant. "We are different," Arvind Poddar, the company's chairman and co-managing director, said at the recent Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas.

The company's recent decision to suspend plans to construct its first U.S. factory related to difficult macroeconomics and the "volatile" climate conditions would seem to indicate the company will curtail investment until market conditions indicate otherwise.Hardly. According to Poddar, BKT which produces agricultural, industrial and OTR tires at four plants in India for the global market is in the process of investing between $500 million and $550 million in a series of expansions, including A chemical plant on the grounds of the Bhuj factory complex in northwest India for manufacturing carbon black. A new plant in Waluj, Maharashtra State, to replace a 30-year-old farm/industrial/OTR tire plant nearby; and Modernizing plants in Bhiwadi and Chopanki, located in India's northern Rajasthan State.