Ceat, the leading tyre manufacturer in the country, has introduced a new range of puncture-safe tyres for motorcycles.

Developed at its research and development centre at Halol in Gujarat, the first set of tyres are being introduced in South India, beginning with Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as after-market fitments for motorcycles.

These tyres will be gradually supplied to other parts of the country in a phased manner and possibly later to original equipment manufacturers.

“OEMs are price sensitive and take time to decide on anything new,” said Nitish Bajaj, Vice President, Marketing, Ceat.

Nitish Bajaj told thata patent has been filed for puncture-safe tyres.

“As a leading tyre company supplying to various segments be it commercial vehicles, passenger cars or two-wheelers and other special segments, we continue to innovate. This tyre has a special gel. When a nail pieces the tyre, the gel protects the tyre. Later, when the nail is removed, the gel fills up the space created by the nail,” he said.

A puncture-safe tyre has a sticky, gum like sealant material layer inside the tyre in the tread area. This material seals the damaged area due to puncture by any penetrating object preventing air loss and avoids the need of immediate repair.

The company has manufacturing facilities at Bandhup, Nashik, Nagpur and Halol in India and another plant in Sri Lanka to cater to the local market there.

The plant at Nagpur set up last year has potential to be ramped up to one million units per month, he said.

While the country's tyre market is estimated at ₹60,000 crore, and growing at about 6-7 per cent, Ceat closed last year with revenues of ₹6,500 crore, he said.

Lately, there have been some concerns about imported tyres flooding the market, particularly in the commercial vehicle segment and to some extent passenger cars. As an industry body, there have been some representations about concerns of these imports, he said.

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