Sri Lanka’s largest tyre plant on a groundbreaking mission

• Prime Minister to officiate at ground breaking ceremony at BOI Zone in Horana on 5 January

Rigid Tyre Corporation Ltd., equipped with the latest technology, is destined to roll in a new page in the industrial sector of Sri Lanka. It comes with the healthy integration of political acumen, local entrepreneurship and proven European technology in the form of a world reputed Marangoni of Italy.  Marangoni is famed not only for its superlative breeds of tyres , but the process of manufacture as well;  high performing, fuel efficient and most importantly, it treads lightly on the environment. Its carbon footprint is small and clean.

On the direction of President, Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wikremesinghe will lay the foundation stone of this mega plant at a stately event held at the BOI Industrial Zone, Wagawatta, Horana on the 5 January 2017. The well attended function will have over 1500 invitees. Amongst the invitees are Malik Samarawikrama and many other Cabinet ministers who will be joined by BOI Chairman Upul Jayasooriya, ministerial secretaries and Government officials. Clergy of all faiths and representatives of the community will also be present.

This new venture, with a Rs. 11.25 billion investment, is tipped to be the biggest fully-integrated tyre manufacturing plant in the country. It is an initiative with far reaching benefits for the country: be it the economy or forex, employment of skilled labour or professional development, value adding our natural resources, and reaching out to investors the world over and beckoning them to Sri Lanka as an investor friendly nation.

The venture would create over 3000 job opportunities, both direct and indirect. It would be a fitting venue for blue-chip professionals, who would stand to gain the exposure to ultramodern technology and technical know-how right here in this very place of their birth: this is expertise they would otherwise gain only through employment at a similar manufacturing facility overseas. The exposure gained at this technically advanced state-of-the-art facility would certainly groom them to be sought after professionals the world over. 

Such a high caliber of employment generation is what the country needs right now for accelerating growth with social inclusion. Such a progressive step would mean one thing: to bring an end to the practice of placing our talented sons and daughters into already crowded Government work places, which would drain the Government coffers even more. On the contrary, what the tyre plant does for the country is to create the opportunity for jobs that will in turn create wealth, not drain it, so that the country as a whole can have a future to prosper.

That is why Rigid Tyre Corporation at Horana, has the full blessings of the Government. For it is all about creating that future for all of us to prosper. 

First among the beneficiaries are the very communities that live in the proximity of this up and coming facility. There will be a host of livelihood development; amongst them housing and infrastructure development will boom and so will the real estate prices of the locality. 

Rigid Tyres main business intention is to capitalise on the European market. The impetus to do so comes from the technical collaborators of this venture Marangony, who are a renowned brand the world over with an impressive stake in Europe. All Rigid Tyre products take on the tag, ‘Licensed by Marangoni’.  

The tyre plant, being the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, is commissioned to manufacture the whole gamut of tyres that roll on the roads. Passenger car radials for performance, driving comfort, safety and long life; truck and bus radials that demand more road run than anything else. Even the three wheel and two wheel segment of the tyre market is in for a significant gain, because the plant’s new technology can certainly deliver the quality attributes at the price this segment is willing to offer. Off-road tyres (OTR tyres) are another segment of the tyre industry that the plant is well gear to deliver with superlative attributes unrivalled in the industry.

Besides the manufacture of tyres, the plant has earmarked several other separate divisions for enhancing the value adding of the rubber industry even more. One product is the manufacture of High Density Conveyor Belts, aiming at the mining industry of the world. In a similar manner, High Pressure Hydraulic Pipes will also be manufactured as they are in high demand at oil fields right now. 

The investor of this venture is none other than Ceylon Steel Corporation and MA Steel Lanka Ltd. Chairman Nandana Lokuwithana. He is also a businessman of known for his acumen and entrepreneurship as the chairmen of Onyx Group in the UAE with a host of diverse companies, one of which is a steel fabrication company. He is also the owner of Marriot Al Jadaf Hotel, Dubai.   

It was this business stature of Nandana Lokuwithana, who is steadfast on serving his motherland with the prowess he manifests, that paved the way for a world brand such as Marangoni to share their knowledge and global reputation in making a reality of his brain child - Rigid Tyres. 

With the laying of the foundation, the 100 acre land will transform itself into not just Sri Lanka’s largest fully-integrated tyre plant, but a mega city for the tyre industry of the world, equipped with a four storied ultra-modern research lab to advance research and development, and a plant complex that operates cutting edge technology, fuel efficiency and above all, environmental safety. 

This embodiment of ‘a green industry’, complete with iconic architecture and residential quarters, will soon  attract some of the best talent that Sri Lanka has on offer for the good of the entire country.