SEREGNO, Italy— Balkrishna Industries (BKT), an off-highway tire manufacturer headquartered in India, announced a $100 million construction project for a new production site to serve not only the U.S. markets but the entire American region. This new production site will be the multinational group’s first manufacturing site outside of India.

Europe is presently BKT’s largest sales market accounting for more than half of the company’s overall turnover. Yet, the Americas are becoming an increasingly interesting and expanding market, the company says. The more than positive outlook led to the decision of establishing a new wholly-owned subsidiary company in the USA to set up a greenfield project for the construction of a new tire manufacturing plant in the USA designed for a yearly production capacity of about 20,000 MT in the entire off-highway tire segment. Target markets are both the replacement market and OEMs in the U.S. The remaining tire demand will still be catered for directly from India.

The project has been approved by the board of directors and was first announced during the TIA Hall of Fame Award Ceremony in Las Vegas on Oct. 29, 2018. 

The project for the construction of a U.S. tire manufacturing plant is presently at its initial stage. The company is looking for an appropriate terrain, which will be defined by the end of this year, so that land acquisition will take place by the end of the first quarter 2019. Project completion is expected by March 31, 2021.