BKT Gears Up for EXCON’21 with Robust ‘Made in India’ Plans for the Indian and International Market

Rajiv Poddar

Joint Managing Director Balkrishna Industries Ltd

For over 30 years, Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT), an Indian multinational and global player in the Off-Highway tire market has successfully focused on specialist segments such as agricultural, construction and industrial as well as earthmoving, port and mining, ATV, and gardening applications. With five factories located in Aurangabad, Bhiwadi, Chopanki, Dombivali and Bhuj, BKT currently manufactures over 3,200 high-performance specialist tires, which are exported to more than 160 countries. Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director, Balkrishna Industries Ltd., in conversation with CE&CR, shares about upcoming EXCON’21 expectations, industry insights, market strategy, and much more.

CE&CR: With the theme ‘Building India for a New World – Competitiveness, Growth, Sustainability and Technology’, what do you look forward to at EXCON’21?

Rajiv Poddar: EXCON is a powerful rostrum for the construction industry and one of the biggest platforms in South Asia. BKT has been a part of EXCON for around ten years now. However, attending EXCON this year is imperial to us. With the world under on and off lockdown for the past two years, it was difficult to showcase our new products to our customers. This year we are elated to meet our buyers and interact with them and hear their feedback. One of our biggest motivations, for EXCON this year, is so that we can delve into the insights of our customers after the Covid gap.

Our other motivation for attending is the theme of this year. We believe that this expo has always generated healthy competition within the construction equipment sector and invigorated the technological research and development within this industry. The theme of Aatmanirbhar Bharat is rooted in Building India for a New World, which perfectly embodies our values of making products in India and selling it globally.

Bhuj Plant Main Gate

CE&CR: What all will be the showstoppers from your product portfolio in the EXCON’21?

Rajiv Poddar: Our products during this EXCON will be focused on our new technological developments in the mining tires industry.

CE&CR: Markets are transformational with ever surging demands in the equipment sector, how do you strengthen your position in the Global and Indian scenario?

Rajiv Poddar: BKT is an agile company with a heavy focus on technological advancements. Our R&D is a robust ecosystem where we focus on researching the demand of the market along with the demand drivers to analyze the real-time data and future potential of these demands. We also focus our research on upgrading our products to produce the best quality of tires that are able to withstand extreme temperatures and rocky terrains while minimizing the wearing of these tires. We use this information to focus on the development of various products. We are investing over ₹2500 Cr on our expansion plans to meet the surging demands of the market.

While our R&D allows us to strengthen our place in the Indian and global markets, our expansion plans are ensuring that we are also able to produce products and meet the demands of both Indian and international markets. Our Brownfield project at Bhuj is focused on debottlenecking and adding ancillary equipment at the plant. It will also add 50,000 MTPA to our current production capacity. This is just one of our projects. We are simultaneously working on upgrading our other plants and expanding them as well.

CE&CR: The pandemic despite slowing down the economy has propelled the country to transition into a ‘New Age’ of dynamic infrastructural growth. How you being an industry giant, are gearing up for these robust developments?

Bhuj Plant

Rajiv Poddar: The pandemic that started in 2020 was a huge shock to the global economy. However, for the tire sector, the slowdown was short-lived. Agricultural tires have driven a strong demand since the pre-Covid era. Additionally, the rise in coal consumption and privatization of this sector were demand drivers for huge earthmoving machines. The pandemic drove the focus of the government to infrastructure which caused major steps to be taken for infrastructural development. The infrastructure has become a key driver for the Indian economy.

This sector has been the center focus of the development of our country and the government has focused majorly on coming up with policies and capital to invest in this sector through the construction of roads, railways and highways.

BKT is an agile company dedicated to diversification and product development. We use state-of-the-art technology in producing our tires. The rising demand from the construction sector has motivated us to focus our R&D on providing better quality products. We are continuing to spend funds on R&D to ensure that we can provide better products to our customers and the global market. With the recently added capacities and more expansion plans in the process, we are in a better position to fulfill the surging demand.

For further information,
visit: www.bkt-tires.com