CEAT Kelani Holdings, a joint venture between India’s RPG Group and Sri Lanka’s Kelani Tyre, is scheduled t o officially open a Rs.600 million passenger car radial tyre production facility next week, with the aegis of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

The new plant is integrated with the sprawling CEAT Kelani manufacturing complex in Kelaniya, enabling it to seamlessly augment production of CEAT-branded tyres for the domestic and export markets.

When t he new t yre building machines and presses start production, CEAT Kelani will increase its radial tyre building and curing capacity by 70 percent, from 23,000 tyres per month to 39,000.

The market leader in Sri Lanka in both the radial and commercial tyre segments, CEAT has accounted for nearly 50 percent of the country’s tyre requirements since the second quarter of 2013-14.

The brand currently has market shares of 57 percent for tyres in the truck/light truck category, 32 percent in radials, 46 percent in three-heeler, 19 percent in motorcycle and 73 percent in the agricultural segments.