1. Report - bkt www.EquipmentIndia.com
Equipment India october 201672
C.A.S.H
The Tyre Game
The new plant at Bhuj is a result of BKT’s ambitious vision to become a global leader in off-
highway tyres.
I
f the off-highway tyre market was
a chess game, BKT would be pre-
paring to checkmate the same to
claim its place as a global leader.
During the ‘The Game Changer’ event
at Mumbai in September 2016,BKT gave
a first-hand look of BKT’s newest facil-
ity at Bhuj, in Gujarat.
“In the game of chess, there is a
unique quality that distinguishes a true
champion from a mere player. It is the
ability to understand that each move
presents a challenge as the game pro-
greses. And hence,the flexibility to adapt
one’s strategy till the final move,” says
Arvind Poddar, Chairman and
Managing Director, BKT. “Since its
inception,BKT has chosen to be a main
player in this game,on the global chess-
board,” he adds.
The game plan
The Bhuj facility represents BKT’s
winning chess move in the off-highway
tyre market. Rajiv Poddar, Joint
Managing Director,BKT who spear-
headed the project,says the plant is part
of the tyremaker’s overall strategic ob-
jective of “achieving leadership in the
off-highway tire market worldwide.”
BKT’s vision to become a global
leader prompted the company to make
some major changes.“In our case,it became
evident that to support the new ambitious
vision we had to make some radical
changes in our production set up.This
needed to be done swiftly in order to
effectively seize new sales opportunities
in global markets,” Rajiv says.
He adds, “After carefully analysing
different factors, it emerged that Au-
rangabad, Chopanki and Bhiwadi pro-
duction plants were already working at
full capacity.Taking into account all
factors, clarity emerged, that we need-
ed a new plant.”
To meet its goal, BKT outlined a
strategic plan of what the new plant
would need: a production capacity of
140,000 metric tonne a year;around 300
acres of land to house a state-of-the-art
R&D centre with a modern outdoor
testing track, large warehouses for tyre
storage, and additional facilities for
housing,and a total investment of about
$500 million to make all this possible.
Building in Bhuj
Before becoming the home of a
state-of-the-art tyre plant, the Bhuj lo-
cation consisted of barren desert landBhuj facility represents BKT’s winning the move in the off-highway tyre market.

2. Report - bktwww.EquipmentIndia.com
73Equipment Indiaoctober 2016
C.A.S.H
where wild animals roamed free and
water and electricity access did not
exist.After careful consideration, the
Bhuj location was chosen for its contin-
uous land and close proximity to the
Port of Mundra,which BKT already used
for exports.
The tyremaker purchased 312 acres
in total,after negotiating with numerous
landowners to acquire the property.BKT
has built on 212 acres,leaving 100 acres
for further expansion.
To make the desolate land fit for the
BKT facilities,a 5-mile pipeline for drink-
ing water and roughly 8 miles of electric
lines were laid. Paved roads were also
laid and all BKT constructions were built
to withstand harsh winds, earthquakes
and floods that the area often encounters.
The 167-acre plant’s construction
began in January 28,2011,and produced
its first solid tyre and cured its first
pneumatic tyre in March 2012. By the
end of March 2012, the plant was pro-
ducing 100 metric tonne per day.
The plant officially opened in No-
vember 2015 and manufactures off-high-
way tyres, with special attention on ag-
riculture and giant OTR tyres,for BKT’s
various markets around the world.
Currently,the plant has a production
capacity of 200 metric tonne per day
and BKT expects to produce 325 metric
tonne per day by the end of 2016.The
tyremaker has created a 51-inch giant
OTR radial.
DMVaidya,President and Direc-
tor -Technology,BKT said,“BKT has
built a truly modern plant with state-of-
the-art tyre building machines from
around the world, including automated
tyre building machines, some of which
are a first for any BKT plant.”
Testing at the BKT plant is extensive.
Tyre safety and reliability is tested every
step of the way – from the compound
to the finished product – with numerous
laboratories monitoring progress,includ-
ing an analytical,chemical and synthesis,
compounding and sample reparation,
physical, and microscopic laboratory.
Part of BKT’s vision to position itself
as a leader in the off-highway tyre mar-
ket includes not only a new plant, but
also a power plant that produces 20 MW
of electricity,a 25,000-sq-ft R&D centre
set to be completed this year,a test track,
two warehouses and township area that
includes homes for up to 412 workers
and their families and 90 homes for
single workers.
The test track,located in front of the
R&D centre, allows BKT to test tyre
performance in various conditions and
is the first of its kind in India.“The facil-
ity features concrete and asphalt tracks
that can be used for dry and wet con-
ditions, a concrete and asphalt circular
track, a dirt track, a stone track and a
noise measurement path. It has already
had requests from Indian companies to
use the track for testing,” saysVaidya.
“Without ever losing sight of BKT’s
“Since its inception, BKT has chosen
to be a main player in this game, on
the global chessboard.”
-Arvind Poddar,
Chairman and Managing Director, BKT.
“Bhuj has enabled us to play a
completely new game from the
perspective of exponential growth and
aiming at global leadership.”
-Rajiv Poddar,
Joint Managing Director, BKT
Currently, the plant has a production capacity of 200 metric tonne per day.
Bhuj Plant: Facts
Plant cost: $500 million
Total area: 312 acres
Central area of plant:
More than 72 acres
Township area:More than 15 acres
Plant built-up area: 3.5 million m
Raw material storage area:
20,000 sq m
Daily present capacity:
120-150 metric tonne
Daily full capacity (2017):
325 metric tonne
Tyre warehousing capacity:
25,000 metric tonne.

3. Report - bkt www.EquipmentIndia.com
Equipment India october 201674
C.A.S.H
fundamental values such as the care for
our people,the care for the environment,
and the care for our customers,Bhuj has
enabled us to play a completely new
game from the perspective of exponen-
tial growth and aiming at global leadership,”
Rajiv adds.
Plant facilities
The production units at Bhuj are
provided with modern compound mix-
ers, advanced equipment for the pro-
duction of steel rings and the latest
vulcanising presses even for large tyre
sizes, to name a few.
Like all BKT plants,Bhuj has obtained
the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Certification
for its quality management system and
operates in full compliance with the
highest level of international standards
regarding production parameters, qual-
ity control and environmental regulations.
Within the production division,an entire
area for OTR giant tyres stands out.
The R&D focus
As talent for innovation is one of
BKT’s core competencies, the new and
modern R&D centre in Bhuj hosts all
facilities for developing top-of-the-range
solutions. Researchers, engineers, and
technicians deal with anything related to
the technical product development:from
designing a new tyre, over developing
new compounds, to improving product
performance as well as production pro-
cesses. Substantial investments in R&D
are the key to success. BKT is always
one step ahead in terms of innovation,
thanks to: Carefully assessing tyre qual-
ity before launching new products on
the market;Testing new compounds to
improve product performance, and
Checking prototype development before
industrialisation.
Logistics
In line with BKTs mid- and long-term
export plans,logistics requirements became
a key determining factor.This perspective
led BKT to focus on a location that was
able to host such a large production site,
being at the same time easily accessible
and close to a large logistics hub.All these
concurring elements restricted the num-
ber of options available.
BKT examined and evaluated all
major ports in India.The Port of Mundra,
in Gujarat,which was already being used
by BKT for exports, turned out to be
the most suitable one. It was and is
considered a highly efficient hub with
great container handling capacities.This
led to the company’s second challenge
of scouting for around 300 acres of
continuous land around the port location,
to ensure short transportation time
between the production site and the
logistic hub.
The state authorities of Gujarat were
forthcoming to welcome a large indus-
trial site in their territory in view of
potential benefits of the local economy,
in terms of development of both direct
occupation and the induced effects.
Moving forward
The Bhuj plant will produce tyres for
BKT’s markets all over the world. Rajiv
says,“The US, Russia and India current-
ly offer the greatest growth opportuni-
ty for BKT, while the US market has a
lot of potential.”
“In the US, we are looking at stabi-
lising our team and getting more and
more distributors on board to help us
promote our product – that is on the
sales side. On the marketing side, we
have teamed up now for over a year
with Monster Jam to reach out to the
end users,” Rajiv shares. BKT is using
more and more technologies such as
help support and other things through
the offices as a means to reach out to
the end users.“Also in the service part,
we have 4-5 service personnel for
product servicing to the end user,”
he concludes.
“BKT has built a truly modern plant
with state-of-the-art tyre building
machines from around the world,
including automated tyre building
machines, some of which are a first
for any BKT plant.”
-DM Vaidya,
President and Director-Technology, BKT
The Bhuj plant has obtained the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Certification for its quality
management system.
EI