MUMBAI, India—Off-road tire maker Balkrishna Industries Ltd. is planning to add carbon black production at its tire plant in Bhuj, a company document confirms.
"As a backward integration plan, the BKT board has approved the setting-up of a carbon black plant project at its Bhuj plant," according to a July 29 letter to the Indian stock exchange in Mumbai, referring to the $500 million OTR tire plant in Bhui, Gujarat, that opened in late 2016.
BKT said the estimated investment would be about $44 million, for a facility with an initial annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons.
The plant is built in a remote location near the Pakistani border, which required significant infrastructural investment, including dedicated water pipelines and power transmission lines.