Two-day production halt at Apollo Kerala plants

Kochi, India – Apollo Tyres halted tire production at two of its plant in Kerala, south of India, for two days last week, due in part to a market slowdown.

Apollo’s plants in Kalamassery and Perambra stopped manufacturing on 13-14 Sept, to mark 'Onam' festivities, and resumed operations on Sunday 15 Sept, a company spokesman told ERJ.

"While the demand for our tires in the replacement market in India is still strong, the slowdown in the vehicle sales, has resulted in lesser demand from the OEs,” said the spokesman in a written statement 17 Sept.

Stating that the company’s production is tuned to the market demand, the spokesman said the policy had “called for rationalisation from time to time.”

“In the current scenario as well, there is a need to rationalise the production, including rationalising of the contractual manpower,” he added, without offering further explanation.

The spokesman expressed hope that “the good monsoons, the recent stimulus package by the government, and the ensuing festivals will see a turnaround in demand from the OEMs."

According to the ERJ Global Tire Report 2018, Apollo manufactures 117 tonnes/day and 340 tonnes/day of light truck, truck and bus and agricultural tires at Kalamassery and Perambra factories respectively.

The company also has production plants in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Limda, Gujarat.