REIMAGINING A MEANINGFUL BUSINESS

In an industry talk session, Satish Sharma, President of the Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA), Apollo Tyres Ltd. and Chairman, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), speaks to Ashish Bhatia on the need to reimagine a meaningful business.

- Ashish Bhatia

Q. What is your broad-based analysis of the industry sentiment?

A. The industry has seen a fair amount of a rather tough period with challenges. We are definitely out of that cycle and have entered an up cycle now. From the time, the regulation on the axle load and before it the liquidity crisis, things were already challenging for the industry. Then came Covid-19. Now we see a revival of the economy and the upcycle forming for the CVs. Having said that, the expectation is that a V-shaped recovery will help the industry go back to a pre-pandemic level. I see it happening slowly in a gradual and organic manner. It's taking its time and for the good in my opinion. It's a far surer way and yes, everything points towards a recovery. All it leaves is the extent of recovery and the pace of it to be debated.

I must add that the recovery is a fractured mandate and various segments, for example, the people movers with the bus segment are back. A segment that suffered the most. If you compare it to the low base of the bus segment in Covid-19, yes it's a V-shaped recovery. The tippers were always doing well. The multi-axles and Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) are now beginning to come around. It depends on which segment you are looking at, the market you are looking at and so the shape of recovery is different for different segments.

Q. Are there any weak links in the value chain both upstream and downstream and do you see the stakeholders hand holding one another?