Sri Lanka’s Global Rubber Industries said it is adding an agricultural tyre plant that will take its capacity to 750,000 tires a year or 100 tons per day, in a four-fold increase.
In 2018 GRI had started a 40 million dollar new factory. The new expansion will take the investment up to 100 million dollars.
“GRI’s expansion and increase in our production capacity, in such a short time frame, is a result of the overwhelming demand for our GRI branded products in recent years,” Managing Director of GRI, Prabhash Subasinghe said.
“It has been rewarding to see how our products have been so well received in an extremely competitive market,” he also said.
The new factory will make agricultural tyres including radial tyres.
The firm said it will increase capacity four fold to 750,000 tyres a year or 100 tons per day.
GRI Executive Director Ananda Caldera said 11,600 square meters will be added to the main tyre plant, taking it to 22,400 square meters. The plant will get new 22 tyre building machines and 36 presses.
“Our maximum tire size now is 50 inches. We will soon be able to manufacture tires up to 60 inches in size in the new production plant to meet growing market demand and cater to our customer requirements,” Mr. Caldera also said.
GRI says it is the only Sri Lanka producer of radial agricultural tyres. The expansion will double employees to 500.
GRI Chief Executive, Mahesha Ranasoma says the factory will double employees to 500 who will be in production, engineering, quality assurance, advanced technology, research and development.
The factory roof will have solar panels, taking the generating capacity to 2.5 Mega Watts. The factory also uses biomass boilers instead of furnace oil.
In 2020, GRI also commenced construction of a new mixing facility in the Mirigama Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Sri Lanka. The firm, which started in 2002, has a presence in 50 countries.
