Market and product

KARACHI: The supply of tyres to the local car manufacturers resumed as the General Tyre and Rubber Company of Pakistan Ltd (GTR) restarted its production of tyres after its labour union called off the strike, Daily Times learnt on Tuesday. Permananet and salary incerements demands not met

Sources said that due to the closure of the company carmakers were likely to import tyres from abroad as they had asked the government to allow import of tyres because of the complete shutdown of the company due to its workers’ strike.

A statement issued by the company said that the company, which faced a complete shutdown of activities for almost three weeks, would now put in extra efforts to gain the customers’ confidence, once again, and get back on the track after incurring huge losses.

The company has confidence in its workers and it could meet the tightest deadlines and growing market’s demands. The management and workers would now go all out to pull the company out of crisis and would not let their differences hamper the progress of the company.

The company has invested over Rs 1,250 million during the last four years in the plant to upgrade its facilities to enhance the production of quality tyres. GTR has also very recently expanded its farm tyre production by commissioning new equipment.

General Tyre has also ventured into the international market in the last few years and has been exporting tyres to the Middle East on regular basis. Sources said the company had recently been put back on track after so many years of losses and it had started to mark its footprint in the highly competitive market where it not only had to compete with imported but smuggled tyres as well.

The company which was set to post profit this year on the backdrop of cost cutting measures, some price recovery owing to cost increases and increased effort to claw back replacement market segment from imported brands, will first have to put in extra effort to survive as a shutdown of more than a week usually pulls back the company by at least 6 to 9 months.

They added that during the closure the company had supplied tyres to the manufacturers, as they had already smelled a shutter down strike by the labour union. The retail market had suffered a lot during this period.

The company’s production after the end of the strike had dropped down to just 3,000 units per day as against 5,000 units normally. Accept Suzuki’s new model of Suzuki swift, the company is providing tyres for all models of leading car manufacturers. It is worth mentioning that the local tyre and tube industry is around 45 years old as in July 1964, the first tyre was produced by the GTR. Over the years, the GTR has increased its capacity to reach a level of 2.3 million tyres. The company did not fulfil the demands of the labour union for making permanent the contractual employees and increasing their salaries. After a three-week long strike the labour union called off the strike.

(Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/, By Moonis Ahmed)