[anonymous]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Whoa man!!.. that's some serious price hike. About 35% in a single year. Are you sure they are the same size, spec?. My Bridgstone Turanza's cost me 3350 last year, and this year, about 3500/-. btw, I change tyres every year and I'v never seen such a huge hike.

Absolutely. I even talked to Apollo Engineer who came to check my tyre as it was under warranty and he also said that there had been almost 35% hike in the prices since last year.
I now switched to Yoko. Reason they are 400 Rs cheaper from Apollo and make less noise.

[dhanushs]

hhmmm... now I'm getting to know the reason why I see so many cheap 'imported' tyres in the local tyre shop!.

[manaa45]

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

Well, being from the rubber industry, here are my 2 cents.

Natural Rubber 2-3 years ago cost Rs. 70 per kg. Currently its at about 180 per kg.
Synthetic has also seen an increase of 25% or so.

The current pricing structure is a result of cartels and bad policys.

p.s. joshguy, a tyre cannot be recycled to make into another tyre again...

I totally agree with Abhi, the rubber prices have been responsible for the tyre prices to shoot up, and it wont be just tyre but lot of rubber parts that go into your car, either their prices will go up or the quality will go down.

Rubber prices have gone up this much due to hoarding by big rubber growers(sic) of Kerala, government not helping by reducing the import duty on natural rubber etc. For rubber products manufacturers like us, we consider rubber from Kerala specially Northen side of kerala to be the best inspite of natural rubber growing in other parts of country like Mangalore, Belthangady and other eastern parts of the country.

The Rubber board which was created to be a mediator between the growers and manufacturers who use rubber is based at Kerala and has a huge lobby of growers with little say form the rubber users and their associations.

Somebody has mentioned that tapping is slow due to the rains but then rubber prices have been going up from January when there were no rains at all. I surely agree that when the demand for rubber was less, the plantation owners used up the space for growing Vanilla etc which was selling at a premium then but has now demand has reduced considerably and Returns on investments are not high presumably.

Here is a graph of the rising rubber prices which will give you a good idea of what is to come in near future.

Mansi

[Latheesh]

Remember hearing the news in local channel last week that natural rubber prices dropped due to Govt. decision to import the same.

Yes its a big lobby and they pocket millions of rupees every year. You cannot even call them farmers :-)

[Gilead]

Originally Posted by GTO

- How can a VW Vento with an expected 3,000 units a month face tyre shortages, when a Maruti with 100,000+ units a month is able to source tyres locally?

Three words: OEM tire quality.

Originally Posted by GTO

Are you serious? OEM tyres are bought for a mere 500 bucks?

I am serious and 500 bucks is for R15 tires. R12 is bought at a mere 200 bucks! R14 for 350! Tire companies have to make money somewhere and with OEM margins like these, is it any wonder that retail prices are going up like crazy.

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by GTO

Are you serious? OEM tyres are bought for a mere 500 bucks?

I was recently quoted Rs. 450 for a replacement OEM tyre for my Esteem.

[Sinner666]

This may be good news but I do not think the effects will filter down that fast.
India to implement FTA with Indonesia, Cambodia soon

India will soon implement the free trade agreement (FTA) in goods with two more Asean countries—Indonesia, Cambodia—by slashing duties on hundreds of products including seafood, chemicals, apparel and tyres. In turn the two countries will also slash import duties on hundreds of Indian goods.

Read it in today's Financial Express.

[mxx]

Originally Posted by GTO

- Why source "unheard of brands" from Russia? Surely, Asian countries known for their low costs (Thailand, China etc.) would be able to supply brand name tyres at a cheaper rate? This Q is specific to the Vento.

2 reasons I can think of
1) They may be already sourcing in good quantities for their russian manufactured lineup, so better deal than sourcing from new vendor
2) Maybe of better quality. Else, why would pirelli choose to manufacture with this "what that name" brand.(source about pirelli connection: from a post in vento thread)

Just for the record, I would rather trust my life with a russian stuff than awful chinese stuff

[GTO]

Originally Posted by blackasta

When our trrops can use russian arms, ride russian tanks / submarines / planes (now don't you bring up the MiG stories - they are OLD planes) - why do we fear that russian car tires would be worse than chinese ones?
Just because of a slightly jumbling name to pronounce - we should not fall for dingdong, linglong etc kind of tires.

I should have clarified. When I posted "name-brand" tyres, I meant Bridgestone / Michelin / Yokohama tyres that are produced in Thailand & China. I'm NOT big on either Russian local brands nor Chinese. The big 3 tyre manufacturers have R&D budgets that exceed the net worth of some of these smaller (unknown) tyre manufacturers. And your life really depends on those 4 palm-sized contact patches that your tyre connects to the road with. I'm very particular about my tyre brands.

Originally Posted by diwa

OEM JK tyres for Swift is procured by Maruti at Rs 300 - 400 per tyre and the quality is not the same as the one we buy from tyre stores which costs around Rs 1,600/-.

Originally Posted by Gilead

I am serious and 500 bucks is for R15 tires.

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

I was recently quoted Rs. 450 for a replacement OEM tyre for my Esteem.

I am honestly shocked. 200 - 500 bucks for OEM tyres! No wonder they are so poorly constructed.

On a lighter note : when upsizing straight from the showroom, I usually manage to get about 2,000 bucks a piece for OEM tyres (exchange price). Now that's a business opportunity

Originally Posted by mxx

They may be already sourcing in good quantities for their russian manufactured lineup, so better deal than sourcing from new vendor

You make a valid point.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by GTO

I should have clarified. When I posted "name-brand" tyres, I meant Bridgestone / Michelin / Yokohama tyres that are produced in Thailand & China. I'm NOT big on either Russian local brands nor Chinese. The big 3 tyre manufacturers have R&D budgets that exceed the net worth of some of these smaller (unknown) tyre manufacturers. And your life really depends on those 4 palm-sized contact patches that your tyre connects to the road with. I'm very particular about my tyre brands.

+1 to that.

Having had association with Tyre Manufacturing Plants for a year long ago, I learnt that

- For all major Brands R & D is an on going activity. In fact every batch of rubber is tested and the formulation tuned to the raw material.

- The quality of the tyres depend primarily on the production control and machinery. Different plants producing for major brands tend to have systems that ensure consistent quality for their product.

- Tyres are best manufactured in relatively cold climate, hence most of the US plants were in the north. From this point Russian tyres if produced by or in collaboration with the Major Brands should be as good as those produced any where. What is of importance is that the formulation be suited for Indian condition rather than Russian conditions - heat & rain rather than cold & snow.

[arvind.dk]

This "tyre crisis" has affected agriculture sector too. In karnataka (southern interior regions ) formers are planting more and more rubber. Huge plantations of areca are getting chopped down. Coffee planters are also in the same route. Experts say "It is a bad development" but what matters most is "money".

[barcode]

Apologies, but I haven't gone thru the entire thread. Our family used to be in the rubber trading business. We were very large and it was good business. We supplied rubber to some of the ancillary industries where the quality of rubber was critical.

In my dad's words "Its been a long time the tyre manufacturers have worried about quality of rubber..."

In the last 5-7 years, China has hoarded so much rubber (and bronze... and not to mention the US Dollar itself) that manufacturers can actually export rubber without it going thru any re-shaping, re-packaging and still make ridiculous amounts of money.

Yes, there is a HUGE difference between the quality of the OEM tyres and the retail varieties. However with mounting pressures of rubber prices, it makes sense for the manufacturer to sell the same quality of shoes that they provide to auto manfacturers. Which in the end means poorer quality tyres and higher prices. Put this in a vicious cycle, and we know puncture repair guys have a strong biz coming their way.

[arvind.dk]

Rubeer is very useful but it has very cruel side too. Millions of people were killed for this rubber, a big genocide was happened in cango during witch king leopold's regime.
I believe such things will never repeat!

[tush]

Originally Posted by GTO

I should have clarified. When I posted "name-brand" tyres, I meant Bridgestone / Michelin / Yokohama tyres that are produced in Thailand & China. I'm NOT big on either Russian local brands nor Chinese. The big 3 tyre manufacturers have R&D budgets that exceed the net worth of some of these smaller (unknown) tyre manufacturers. And your life really depends on those 4 palm-sized contact patches that your tyre connects to the road with. I'm very particular about my tyre brands.

Spot on GTO. Life is precious so no compromise in Tyre quality.
There are lot of accidents occuring just because of poor tyre quality, not to mention the ignorance of the user also.

One related news from yesterday

DNA E-Paper - Daily News & Analysis -Mumbai,Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, India

Page - 3 Talks about a Pune techie. He dies because of an accident caused due to tyre bust on expressway and his car rolling and hitting a divider.

Page - 5 Tyres, their caring and quality issues.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by GTO

I should have clarified. When I posted "name-brand" tyres, I meant Bridgestone / Michelin / Yokohama tyres that are produced in Thailand & China. I'm NOT big on either Russian local brands nor Chinese. The big 3 tyre manufacturers have R&D budgets that exceed the net worth of some of these smaller (unknown) tyre manufacturers. And your life really depends on those 4 palm-sized contact patches that your tyre connects to the road with. I'm very particular about my tyre brands.

Just curious - Is there any difference between a Yoko made in China and Yoko made in Japan? My car runs on made in Japan Yoko ES100s. Next time when I go for a change, should I be worried if the tire shop shows me Yoko made in China?