The tyre industry in India grew slowly until the 1970's when there was a spurt of companies entering the market. During 1920*s a few multinationals like Firestone, Goodyear and Dunlop entered the market as trading companies. There were no manufacturing facilities in India. Subsequently after 1936 multinationals started subsidiaries. During the 1970s many business houses entered the tyre industry market. It is estimated that during 1988 there was a demand for 17.7 million tyres in India. The demand is expected to reach 44 million tyres by the year 2000. The breakup of this demand among trucks, LCVs, cars and two-wheelers is given in Table 1.