Continental Ambitious on Localization: Tires Business Expand Manufacturing Capacity at the Modipuram Plant

The technology company and premium tire manufacturer Continental significantly expands its truck tires production capacity at the Modipuram plant in Uttar Pradesh. The capacity expansion initiative will be completed in the next 18 months, further increasing the product range for 20” and 22.5” along with the existing other range of Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) tires produced at the plant. This expansion will enable increased export volumes to the APAC region, favorably impacting Continental’s production cost and profitability.

Claude d’Gama Rose, Head of Tires Business, Continental India, said, “Our tire business in India is expanding, and we are committed to manufacturing world-class products for our consumers. We are moving ahead with “in the market, for the market” approach and our plant is manufacturing products suitable to the Indian road conditions. Our offerings, both in commercial and passenger, has expanded in terms of product, size, and pattern. We have scaled up our production capabilities to serve domestic and export demand, coming from ASEAN, APAC, and select regions in South America.”

Continental, with an ‘in the market, for the market’ approach, has been consistently investing in the Indian market. For instance, the Tires business has been investing in the manufacturing infrastructure, production lines, and expanding the plant capacity to manufacture world-class tires since the beginning of the operations in 2011. Further, the Modipuram plant will see significant expansion in phases until 2030. Both TBR and PLT (Passenger and Light Truck) tires have witnessed tremendous new product introduction growth.

Kuldeep Singh, Vice President – Manufacturing, Modipuram, Continental India Private Limited, says, “Since we entered into the Indian market in 2011, we have grown substantially after the acquisition of Modi Rubber Limited, introducing a variety of products for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. We introduced the Radial range of tires to the Indian market. We are the first and only MNC in India that produces the TBX (Truck Bus/Bias X-ply), TBR and PLT range of tires at one location. To facilitate the same, both our PLT and TBR facilities have undergone phased expansion in the past. The latest capacity increase for Truck Tires will be the fourth such expansion in the last six years.”

Cutting Edge Technology

Continental manufactures tires in India with the company’s state-of-the-art technology support from Hannover. All tires produced at the Modipuram plant are of superior quality and robust in nature. The tires are equipped with high silica compounding technology that ensures higher mileage, low rolling resistance, better fuel consumption, and safety. The tire compounds are processed without any carcinogenic material, following Indian as well as all European norms.

Industry 4.0 and Sustainability

The tires plant has been gradually adopting Industry 4.0 practices by deploying automation and enabling data exchange in the manufacturing area. Some of the activities include real-time online process analysis, traceability, validation, and inventory management for monitoring end-to-end processes. The highly robust supply chain and benchmarking quality standards ensure that quality products are delivered to customers without disruptions.

The plant is also equipped with fully automatic – fast lane tire building machines, chemical dosing systems, tire dimension studies, and tire simulation studies for development. The plant utilizes different software for forces optimization in tires to better uniformity and uniform wear structured process for customer complaint handling.

Industry 4.0 also emphasizes the plant’s sustainability goals. The Modipuram plant has been consciously taking steps in adopting sustainable energy sources, alternative fuels, and treating hazardous waste through an authorized waste management process. The plant aims to become carbon neutral by 2030 and become a zero liquid discharge company by 2021.