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MRF keeps its option open on China plant
By siliconindia
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Friday, 02 July 2004, 19:30 IST
CHENNAI: MRF Ltd has hiked prices of tyres in the domestic market after an eight-year wait to offset the spiralling cost of rubber even as it is keeping options open for acquiring manufacturing facilities in China.
MRF chairman and MD KM Mammen said the increase in tyre prices was in the range of one to two per cent. "We have not revised prices for eight years. We cannot hold the price any longer and we have now effected the increase," he told reporters after the launch of MRF Maruti-Baleno car rally for Indian national championships.
Replying to a question, Mammen said: "MRF may or may not acquire a plant in China." Names of some plants in China are being floating around, he said. He, however, ruled out any joint venture in China.
MRF was selling tyres in China but it was one among the 65-odd countries to which the company was exporting tyres, Mammen said.
MRF did not even have an office in China and the business in China was handled by its office in Vietnam, Mammen said.
He said last year MRF's export turnover was about Rs 300 crore. In Pakistan, MRF has over 60 per cent share of the market, Mammen said.