Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (SRSA), manufacturer of the Dunlop tyre brand, has officially started production at its truck and bus radial (TBR) tyre manufacturing plant in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal.

Japanese company Sumitomo Rubber Industries, the world’s fifth-largest producer of automotive tyres and industrial rubber products, acquired a South African tyre manufacturing plant in December 2013, resulting in the birth of SRSA.

The acquisition facilitated the procurement of an established manufacturing location in Africa, as well as control of the Dunlop brand rights for the entire continent.

In 2014, SRSA announced the first phase of a multibillion-rand investment, focused on the upgrading and modernisation of the plant’s capacity, and introducing new technology and equipment aimed at increasing the manufacturing output of passenger and sports utility vehicle (SUV) tyres.

Current passenger vehicle and SUV tyre production capacity is about 12 500 units a day.

In 2016, a further R970-million was injected into the underused land adjacent to the existing plant, with the purpose of enabling SRSA to introduce and manufacture TBR tyres locally.

Planned production capacity by 2020 is 750 tyres a day.

The factory employs 1 060 people, with more than 80% of the workforce hailing from Ladysmith and surrounding areas.

Employment has been created for 193 additional employees since the start-up, including 118 in-service trainees, graduates, apprentices and those on learnership programmes.

The factory aims to eventually have the capability to manufacture enough tyres per day to meet TBR customer demand for Dunlop and Sumitomo branded tyres for both the replacement and the original-equipment markets across the whole of Africa.

“The total size range will be completed by September 2019; however, our customers will not have to wait until [then] to experience our top-of-the-range TBR product, with sales of TBR tyres set to commence in the fourth quarter of this year,” says

SRSA CEO Riaz Haffejee.