[tsk13]

Originally Posted by blackasta

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?

Blackasta, be assured of strict QC and TQM followed in plants of biggies like Yoko, Michelin, Bridgestone etc. irrespective of location. Tyre industry is one such industry where-in one doesn't outsource production to a third party plant.

Moreover, I've only seen Yokos made in Japan and made in Philippines. In any case, be wary of the grey market imports. Two tyres of the same type from the same plant may have differences owing to different formulation for each as per the country for which it is being made. An official Yoko import has high probability of performing extremely well on our roads whereas a Grey market one may burst. Official imports have the benefit of being Made-for-India.

[tush]

Originally Posted by blackasta

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?

I do not think that Made in " " should be a problem as long as you are buying a reputed brand and from an official channel. Big and Reputed brands would always have stringent QC even if they outsource the production is what I think.

[cijo]

Originally Posted by manaa45

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

From the rubber planter's point of view

I am from kottayam(district) kerala , which have the largest rubber plantation in kerala and producers of high grade rubber (RSS1-RSS4).
I agree with you that price gone upto 180 from 70 (now its comes down to 160).

But here is the fact.

Labour costs also increased at the same rate in these years
(avg 400-500 rs per day for one tapper .calculating 1 rs for tapping one tree).

There is a shortage of skilled tappers (person who tap rubber and collect latex)

Fertilizers and other raw material cost also shoot up in last few years.

So if you consider average production cost per acre, rubber plantation is profitable only if planters get around 130-150 rs per kg for RSS 4 grade rubber

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by tush

I do not think that Made in " " should be a problem as long as you are buying a reputed brand and from an official channel. Big and Reputed brands would always have stringent QC even if they outsource the production is what I think.

Made in " " is not as important as Made in " " for Indian conditions. A tyre formulation is tuned for the type of service, climate. road conditions and other parameters. What may be a good tyre for Europe may not last in India. Major tyre producers tune their tyres for export.

For example truck tyres made in India for Indian truckers have more ply rating to take care of over loading. The export tyres are of normal rating. Similarly tyres for India need not have good low temparature characteristics, essential for Europe, in contrast we need tyres which will not melt at 45-50 degrees.

[manaa45]

Originally Posted by cijo

From the rubber planter's point of view

So if you consider average production cost per acre, rubber plantation is profitable only if planters get around 130-150 rs per kg for RSS 4 grade rubber

Thanks a lot Cijo, its always nice to get the other side of story too. But tell me one thing, dont you agree that the local demand is compromised in lieu of the exports. This is what we get to know that best quality RSS gets exported and what we get is medium quality RSS, sometimes with lot of contamination, specially RS lot, which some years back was quite good. Now we see is lot of fungus, smelly sheets in between.

Sorry for going off topic but then if things go on like this, it would be better to stick to brands infact only Michelin or Yokos, sorry to say becos my stock bridgestones did not last me even 20000 kms.

Mansi

[AbhiJ]

Boss, dont blame the growers. I dont.

If you and I had the opportunity to make some extra money, we would have done so to. Thats the advantage of a free market!

I blame the govt policies. The import duty on rubber should be made zero. This will effect in an almost immediate price correction. Once the natural rubber prices fall, the growers will also have to pay the tappers less, simply because no one will agree to pay the tappers their current fees.

There is no logical reason that the growers should be protected by a shield of 20% duty. They are not small unpriviledged farmers.

[agentsmith2]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

A good solution would be to purchase shares of tyre companies.

Appolo was trading in the teens 18 months back; it is now above 70. MRF was 2K odd; now at 7K plus. Have not tracked others - like JK or Dunlop. Dunlop is trading at astronomical P/E ratios.

At least, you will feel better about it.

Just noticed this thread. MRF is doing 9k+ now. MRF Stock Price, MRF F&O Quotes Bids Offers

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

Boss, dont blame the growers. I dont.
There is no logical reason that the growers should be protected by a shield of 20% duty. They are not small unpriviledged farmers.

I would like to correct AbhiJ that there is a huge number of small farmers in Rubber plantation, at least in Kerala. Having said that, I agree with you that none should be shielded in an open market.

Originally Posted by agentsmith2

Just noticed this thread. MRF is doing 9k+ now. MRF Stock Price, MRF F&O Quotes Bids Offers

Don't you all see the point? If raw material prices are going up, how does a manufacturer's shares go up? Wouldn't their profitability get hit?

In any commodity business, one who has the financial muscle and storage caacity to hold stock wins. Rubber prices are controlled by Tire cartel. They buy bulk when prices are low, and they trump up prices so that their end-product (tire) prices could be raised. End result= huge profit.

Who suffers?
1) The end user
2) The small farmers for whom labor and other raw material prices goes up, which typically never comes down.

[rkbharat]

I had severe problem getting Apollo Aceler, none of the dealer having SX4, 205/60 R16. I wrote a mail to Apollo tyres directly and got a call back from Delhi region and they arranged the the tires in Gurgaon with in a day. Costing 5400 Rs per tire :(

[arcotsrinivas]

I have faced a problem when we went to get the tyres changed on my cousins wagon r
We wanted to fit ceat tyres on it but there was no availability the dealer says that there is a huge supply constraint
So had to put Bridgestone which was around 2500/- per tyre two months ago when we replaced the front ones now we had to shell out 3300/- rupees 800/- more just in a time gap of two months.
Any idea when will the price inflation comes to a halt as I have to replace my alto's tyres soon.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

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

Quoted by who?
Are you saying you can buy an OEM replacement tyre for 450Rs or are you saying that's what Maruti gets it for?

[mgh]

OEM tyres are likely to be considerably cheaper for the following reasons
1. Car manufacturers will get bulk buying discounts
2. The excise duty they pay on the tyres (and all excisable raw materials) goes into a modvat account. They can use that money to pay excise duty on the cars. Any customs duty on the other hand does not get that facilty.

Tyre companies in India formed a cartel long ago, and they have also been very good at breaking cartels among their suppliers. All the major ones have or have had collaborations with reputed international manufacturers, and have stringent quality control measures including destructive testing of tyres sampled from every batch.

[roy_libran]

Guys, of late, I have been told that Import of Non-ISI Marked Tyres has been stopped by the Indian establishment. This is the reason all tyre dealers are quoting for tyre unavailability and high tyre prices, especially for SUV tyres. However, I just came across this announcement from 2010, published on: <Import Policy of Radial Tyres.DGFT NOTIFICATION No 47/2009-2014>
Kinda confused now...