The input costs for cars have risen drastically in past one year and so far the auto makers had been trying to bear the costs owing to the market conditions. However, since a bright looking 2009 has passed and the auto industry has reported a healthy growth in the last calendar year, most of the car companies have hiked their new car prices.
Now the tyre companies are planning to hike prices of tyres as the cost of rubber goes up. Prices of natural rubber have followed an upward trend lately making major tyre companies to hike the prices. While CEAT and Birla Tyres have decided to hike prices by 2-5 percent, JK Tyres and Apollo tyres are still watching the market before taking a final call.
“It’s likely that we may have to increase prices by 2-4% in April. The hike will be across all categories of tyres. A sharp rise in input costs is forcing us to review the existing price structure and go in for an upward revision,” said Arnab Banerjee, vice-president (sales & marketing), Ceat.
"Moreover, excise duty on rubber has also been increased from 8 percent to 10 percent making tyres more expensive. We, at Birla Tyres, have also decided to increase tyre prices by about 3.5-5% across the board,” said Deepak Tandon, director, Kesoram Industries. Birla tyres is a division of Kesoram Industries.
