Apollo Acelere, millionth tyre to roll out

Within 10-months of starting commercial production, Apollo Tyres’ newest greenfield in the southern Indian city of Chennai, is already in a swift ramp-up mode. The Chennai facility, which is designed to be the largest and technologically most advanced manufacturing unit globally for Apollo Tyres, at 2300 hours yesterday, crossed another milestone when it produced the millionth passenger vehicle tyre, Apollo Acelere 185/65 R14. Apollo’s 9th manufacturing unit globally and the 4th in India, Chennai was commissioned in a record time of 14 months, and received the necessary certifications and clearances for OE supply in just 4 months after commencing production. The Chennai facility is now producing 7000 passenger vehicle tyres and 1300 truck-bus radials per day. Commenting on the occasion Satish Sharma, Chief, India Operations, Apollo Tyres, noted, “The Chennai team has done a very commendable job in a short span of time. However, this is just the start of our journey in Chennai. We are confident of achieving many such milestones along the way.” In another development, Apollo Tyres recently signed a supplementary MoU with the State Government of Tamil Nadu, where the planned investment in the Chennai greenfield has been increased to Rs 21 billion with a commitment to provide employment to over 2000 people. This is a revision from the original MoU signed in August 2006, which committed Apollo to an investment of Rs 4.5 billion in 5 years.