SHRIRAM RAYONS Racing ahead with rayon-reinforced high-performance tyres

Ganesh Kalidas has an exclusive interaction with the head honchos of DCM Shriram Industries Limited – Senior Managing Director and CEO Alok B Shriram and his daughter President (Rayon Division) Kanika Shriram – to get insights about the company’s global presence in high tenacity rayon tyre cord. The interview also focuses on how the company faced the impact of the pandemic and lockdown and immediately got into the groove once again in record time to be able to achieve the goals of Vision 2025

- Ganesh Kalidas

Here is a part of a fable that many of us may remember: “The Phoenix had risen from the ashes. It lifted its neck and spread out its beautiful wings and soared high into the sky. The Phoenix picked up the ash and put in the egg. And then the Phoenix and the birds flew towards the city of sun, to the temple of the sun, the Egyptians had made.” As an analogy, here is the story of Shriram Rayons. Despite a turbulent start littered with massive obstacles – be it a war and its ripple effects resulting in a ban on raw material import that is so crucial to manufacturing rayon, replacement of ‘wonder fibre’ rayon with nylon or a plant shutdown for two years due to a hard-hitting workers’ strike – Shriram Rayons today has come a long way and stands head and shoulders above the competitors globally.

Established in 1965 in Kota, Rajasthan, Shriram Rayons manufactures rayon yarn, greige and treated fabric. Rayon is still the material of choice for ultra-high-performance tyres and is the only bio-based fibre used in such end-uses on a large scale. The company exports rayon to major tyre manufacturers around the world. Alok Shriram, Senior Managing Director and CEO, DCM Shriram Industries Limited, shares: “We are a unique company in the world as we are the only one to still hold forth the American technology. Post the workers’ strike in 1987-88, we restarted, but our American suppliers were unwilling to give us the raw material. That was when we zeroed down on a niche market in the global technical textile market for high-performance tyres, which run at more than 200 kilometres an hour.”