As part of the agreement, Onyx will acquire the process and technology of the production of passenger car radial tires from Marangoni Meccanica, a subsidiary of Marangoni Group.
In the solid tire business, the memorandum outlines a roadmap the companies have agreed on. Onyx Group will buy 49% of shares of Marangoni lndustrial Tyres Lanka (Private) Ltd. and sign an Off-Take agreement stating Marangoni will continue to manufacture the range of solid tyres for the Onyx Group in its plant in Rovereto.
“In Horana, we have already started construction and it will be completed in 16 months. Thanks to the support provided by Marangoni, next we will install machinery and then the first car tyre manufactured in Horana will be ready by the third quarter of next year,” Onyx Group Chairman Nandana Lokuwithana said. “It is an initiative with far-reaching benefits for Sri Lanka and certainly can roll out many a profiting mile. We will also use as much local raw material which in turn will help to increase price for local rubber industry.”
Marangoni said the next steps on the roadmap for solid tires will include the European commercial entities Marangoni lndustrie Manutention, a company incorporated in France; Wenzel lndustrie GmbH, a company incorporated in Germany; and Marangoni Industrial Tyres S.r.l., a company to be incorporated in Italy.
“This agreement is consistent with the new strategy of focusing our Group on the core markets and businesses of retread, machinery and compounds while developing sound long-term partnerships for technology, production and sales,” said Marangoni Group President Vittorio Marangoni.
The Marangoni Industrial Tyres Business Unit has companies in Sri Lanka, Germany, France and Italy, plus sales in 40 countries.
