“Close to 10-12 million tyres were coming in from Russia into the EU,” Mr. Kanwar said during an earnings call. “But, it was stopped because of the sanctions,” says Neeraj Kanwar, Vice-Chairman and MD. File.
| Photo Credit: KAMAL NARANG
Apollo Tyres has gained market share in Europe following the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) against Russia, said Neeraj Kanwar, Vice-Chairman and MD.
“Close to 10-12 million tyres were coming in from Russia into the EU,” Mr. Kanwar said during an earnings call. “But, it was stopped because of the sanctions.”
This gave Apollo Tyres an opportunity to gain entry into various networks, enabling it to gain market share. ‘This (growth) will continue,’ he added.
“Today, our plants are running in Europe at nearly full capacity. In fact, we are also bringing in close to 1-1.5 million tyres from India. We are trying to service the passenger car market in Europe because we see a huge growth, specifically for the Vredestein brand. And, I believe that the growth is there for us, given this void that has come from Russia,” he said.
According to Gaurav Kumar, CFO, the Hungary plant is getting closer to producing about 16,000 tyres per day based on various de-bottlenecking initiatives.
“Currently, we are operating somewhere around the 14,000-14,500 tyres,” he said.
Asked about debt, Mr. Kumar said the net debt for the India operations was about ₹4,200 crore and on consolidated basis it was about a little under ₹5,500 crore.
Mr. Kumar also said that they haven’t firmed capex for FY24. “We want to see where the markets are going. The capex in the first half of the year is under ₹400 crore on a consolidated basis.”
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