Service Long March Tyres commits investment of around $108mn to double capacity in Pakistan

Service Long March (SLM) Tyres, a Chinese-Pakistani joint venture, intends to invest an additional Rs30 billion (~ USD108 million) in Pakistan to expand its operations in the South Asian country.

The development was shared by SLM’s parent company Service Industries Limited in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.

As per the notice, SLM shared its development plans during a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the company’s Chairman Jin Yongsheng and CEO Omar Saeed.

“Service Long March Tyres has committed a further investment of Rs30 billion to double its capacity and to increase exports to $100 million in 2025,” the company said in a statement.

“SLM has also shown intent to invest a further amount of Rs30 billion to start a new project exporting specialised tyres from Pakistan to EU and USA,” it added.

During the meeting, PM Shehbaz promised continued support from all departments and instructed relevant ministries to help export led growth in the country.

The meeting was attended by the Finance Minister, Commerce Minister, Minister for Privatisation and Investment, Information Minister, Secretary to PM, Secretary Commerce and Secretary BOI.

Authorities in Pakistan remain keen to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), which has dwindled significantly in recent years citing deteriorating law and order situation and political instability.

During the ongoing fiscal year, the country only managed to fetch FDI amounting to $1.1 billion during July-March of FY24 as compared to $1.216 billion in the same period of last fiscal year, depicting a decline of $118 million.

SLM is an all-steel radial truck and bus (TBR) Tyre manufacturing company in Pakistan, and was set up through a JV between Servis Group and Chaoyang Long March of China.

Service Industries Limited and its subsidiary company, Service Global Footwear Limited, hold 32.09% and 18.91% equity stake, respectively, in SLM.

Earlier this year, the shareholders of Service GlobalFootwear Limited (SGF) gave their approval to the company to make further long-term equity investments in SLM of up to Rs1.5 billion.