KARACHI: Heavy smuggling of tyres in Pakistan has scared away foreign investors and India is taking advantage of the situation by offering the global tyre manufacturing players incentives.
This was stated by the officials of General Tyre and Rubber Company (GTR), while talking to journalists during their visit to the company’s plant.
They said that the government could attract domestic as well as foreign investment in the rubber tyre industry by resolving structural problems of the sector.
About company, they said that with 23% share in the overall rubber tyre market, the 51-year-old company is the only player that produces passenger car tyres.
According to industry estimates, Pakistan produces around 23% of the total demand while 40% is met through imports. The remaining 37% is grabbed by smuggled tyres.
Total market demand in the year 2012-13 was 8.2 million tyres, out of which 1.65 million were produced locally, 3.94 million were imported and over 2.6 million were smuggled mainly through the Afghan borders of Chaman and Landi Kotal.
GTR has a workforce of 1,800 people including engineers that are trained in Germany, USA, Japan and other countries.
