Continental secures entry to Indian truck tyre market

The Commercial Vehicle Tyres division of international automo-tive supplier Continental AG has revived the collaboration with Modi that began in 1974 with a cooperation agreement. The company has thus secured access to the Indian market where around 12 million commercial vehicle tyres are required and a growth rate of around 7 percent has been forecast. Modi will produce over one million bias tyres for trucks under the Continental brand. Production of which began at the start of June 2009.

The agreements include a technical cooperation agreement and a license agreement for Continental brand bias tyres. The Continental bias tyres will be distributed via the revived Modi sales network. Bias tyre technology still accounts for over 90 percent of the Indian market.

“For us, this new agreement represents an extremely useful revival of our activities in India, a market, which we know will grow significantly over the coming years,” explains Continental project manager Christian Sass.

The collaboration between Continental and Modi dates back to 1974 when an extensive technical cooperation was agreed on for the set-up of a new Modi tyre plant in Modipuram, Meerut in the state of Uttar Pradesh. From planning to execution and from technology trans-fer to active support, Continental has supplied expertise to Modi for many years. The tyres were marketed under the name Modi-Continental and quickly became a benchmark on the Indian market, increasing awareness of the Continental brand year on year.

Modi temporarily stopped production of bias tyres in 2001 before reactivating the tyre plant two years ago. New contacts were formed between Continental and Modi at that time and the previous arrangements were revived in the subsequent agreements. Further possibilities for collaboration are currently being looked into.

With sales exceeding €24 billion in 2008, the Continental Corporation is one of the top automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, powertrain and chassis systems and compo-nents, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tyres, and technical elastomers, the corporation contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. The corporation currently employs ap-proximately 130,000 at nearly 190 locations in 35 countries.

As one of the largest manufacturers of premium tyres for commercial vehicles, Continental carries a broad range of high-performance products finely tailored to specific application areas for heavy-duty and light trucks, buses and off-road vehicles. Continental AG produces truck and bus tyres under the Continental, Uniroyal, Semperit and Barum brand names.