President Gotabaya Rajapaksa confirmed that Southeast Asia's largest tyre manufacturing facility will open on January 14. The Forentino Tyre (Pvt) Limited in Wagawatte Export Processing Zone is the company that is opening this manufacturing facility.
According to the Chairman of the company, Nandana Lokuwithana, the project to build Southeast Asia's largest facility was initiated with an estimate of US 250 Million. This project is said to revitalize exports and will be creating thousands of job opportunities. The construction of the second phase of the facility has been initiated and is successfully going on. It is said to be completed by the month of March 2021. According to Lokuwithana, the aim of the company is to capitalize the European market.
"I am excited about the project as I am confident it will serve to bolster the economy by way of boosting export revenues as well as generate many new occupational opportunities," Lokuwithana said.
When asked as to whether the company has any plans for building a partnership, Lokuwithana said that they are not going for a partnership right now. "We may go for a partnership. They are still under negotiations," Lokuwithana said.
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Lokuwithana who is also the chairman of Ceylon Steel Corporation added that the company has succeeded in developing 160 acres and that it is also planning to purchase raw material from the domestic market for radial construction and manufacturing.
"We also intend to source our entire requirement for rubber locally thereby empowering the rubber farmers," he noted. The chairman added that the country’s rubber production is only 12,000 tonnes per annum and the government is also geared to increase the quantity.
"But we may have to look at our competitors too when the manufacturing of solid tyres is concerned. We will have to follow our competitors in Sri Lanka and other bigger players in the industry", he said. He added that the project will be a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved.
"The construction of the second phase of the facility is going on and is slated to be commissioned in March this year," he said.
It is believed that with an impressive manufacturing capacity, the focus could be now on exports which is said to revitalize and help the government maintain its efforts to stabilize the local currency without the affect of the pandemic crisis.
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