"MRF has set its sights on exporting 30 per cent of its total truck tyre production during the year and is now looking at Latin American markets to achieve this," company executive director (marketing) Philip Eapen said here.

The Rs 2,240 crore company based in Chennai, which exports to 65 countries around the world, has made a modest beginning in Brazil, which has almost identical road conditions to India and favours "cross-ply" variety of tyres.

"We see Brazil as a good market for our products and are keen to expand business to other Latin American countries once we capture a share of the Brazilian market," Eapen said adding that "MRF's status as approved suppliers to General Motors will automatically enable us to export to any of their plants."

Admitting thatexports of truck tyres till date had not picked up beyond the 20-25 per cent mark due to competition from cheaper south-east Asian products, Eapen, however, exuded confidence of achieving the targets by March.

MRF's exports to Pakistan, United States and Africa had fetched it over Rs 70 crore between October 1998 and March this year.

Asked about MRF's projected turnover for the current year, the company spokesman said "it would be a great thing if we can maintain the same levels of last year in this recession hit scenario."

Profits from exports would be low compared to domestic sales due to the rupee-dollar equation, "which is why MRF is looking at volumes," he said.

"For MRF the export thrust is a long-term haul and we are looking to establish ourselves in all countries where we have a presence," Eapen said while recalling that the company was the first to exports tyres in the late fifties.

Though the company closed down many of its overseas offices in a bid to cut down on operational costs, MRFhas been hiring local agents to handle its business in the wake of competition from global majors like Michellin and Bridgestone.

While the company has maintained its number one position in the domestic market for many years now, what is heartening is that MRF has been accepted as a suplier of quality products even in Pakistan, Eapen said.

"Though we have both Michellin and Bridgestone as our competitors in Pakistan, it is MRF which fixes the price for the tyre industry there," he said.

Asked about growing competition in the automotive tyre markets, the MRF spokesman said south-east Asian companies do get a price advantage due to the meltdown in their currencies over the last couple of years.

Eapen termed China as an emerging threat to Indian tyre exports and said the Chinese industry has gone in for massive modernisation of its plants and is now stressing on quality to go along with the inherrent price advantage.

The company, which spends substantially on research and development through itsformula racing tyres manufacture, does not see a major shift from the "crossply" to radial segment.

"We do not see any major shift taking place to radials in the near future as it is only in the passenger car segment that people are preferring radials, though a good chunk of users still prefer cheaper crossply tyres," Eapen said.

Asked about prospects for this year, the official said though there has been a demand pick up for small cars as seen by sales figures of Hyundai's Santro and Daewoo's Matiz, there is no actual growth in overall volumes as these cars are just chipping away from Maruti Udyog's market share.

"Moreover, there has been no significant improvement in sales of mid-size cars in the first couple of months of this financial year," he said.

But, the trend of global players setting up manufacturing base in India is a welcome trend as once they start exporting from here, the tyre industry would benefit, Eapen said while pointing to efforts in this direction from Hyundai and Ford MotorCompany.