Pakistan ramps up tire production

Thanks to foreign investment, Pakistan's tire industry is set to reach a new level soon, allowing local manufacturers to fully meet the demand for radial passenger (PCR) and truck/bus (TBR) tires within the country, reports Tanhei.

One of the key projects in Pakistan's tire industry is the launch of the Servis Long March (SLM) plant, a joint venture between China's Chaoyang Long March and local Servis Group (owning 44 and 51% of the shares, respectively), with an initial annual capacity of 800,000 radial truck tires, which has already been doubled, and plans for further expansion have been announced. It is expected that TBR tire production will increase to 2.2 million tires per year, and SLM also plans to build a PCR tire plant with a capacity of 3 million units per year. By the end of next year, the total investment in SLM is expected to exceed $300 million.

A new plant in Pakistan is also being built by the UAE-based company Zafco, which intends to produce tires under the Armstrong brand (acquired in 2012 from Pirelli) in Karachi, a port city on the Arabian Sea coast. The planned capacity of the plant is 3 million TBR and 600,000 PCR tires per year, and currently, "intensive construction" is underway, with production expected to start by the end of this year.

Currently, the demand for PCR tires in Pakistan is around 6 million units per year, while the combined capacity of SLM, Armstrong, and local company Ghandhara Tyre & Rubber (GTR), if all projects are successfully implemented, will reach 8 million tires per year. At the same time, the capacity of the Pakistani TBR tire market is 1.2 million units, and SLM together with Armstrong will not only be able to meet it but also start supplying products to other countries. However, it should be added that in the local market, as well as in neighboring India, tires with a diagonal structure are still widely used.

Photo: wam.ae.