Reifen Pinke: Retreading a means of customer retention
Small and medium-size truck tyre suppliers are well aware that a complete portfolio must also include corresponding retreading products. These days, for either economic or environmental reasons, a large percentage of customers within the transport sector expect further use from their tyre casings following the first tyre life. As shown during a visit to Reifen Pinke in Germany, tyre dealers with their own retreading production can particularly profit from this.
Continue ReadingFewer exports: RuLa and BRW successfully alter course
After focusing heavily in recent years on expanding exports to Eastern Europe and Russia, RuLa and its subsidiary the Berliner Runderneuerungswerk (BRW, or Berlin Retreading Plant) is now concentrating primarily upon the German domestic market and specifically upon further developing its mould cure retreading and logistical capabilities. To achieve this, investments are being made in the company’s Königs Wusterhausen-Zernsdorf site south of Berlin. At the same time, company owner Detlev Biermann and his firm continue to develop their presence in Eastern Europe and very recently acquired a large, modern pre-cure retreading facility in Poland. As Tyres & Accessories learned when visiting the company, both of these investments should ‘weather proof’ RuLa, one of Germany’s largest retreaders, against further structural changes in the sector.
Continue ReadingNew retread facility has Latin America’s largest capacity
A new retread factory that is reported to have the largest capacity in Latin America has opened in Campina Grande do Sul, Paraná, Brazil. Operated by retread tyre manufacturer Ivo Recap, the facility is part of the Vipal authorised network and has a production capacity of 20,000 retreaded tyres per month. Production will include retreaded tyres for cargo transport, agricultural, off-the-road, and industrial applications.
Continue ReadingPirelli offers a “professional full solution tailored to individual requirements”
This year Pirelli initiated a mould cure retreading pilot project under the “Novatread” brand name. According to the Italian firm, in the long-term this product will be introduced throughout Europe and together with its new tyres will represent a full-portfolio, single-source solution. In an interview with Tyres & Accessories, Manfred Zoni, Central Europe sales and marketing director for Pirelli’s truck business, expounded on the strategic approach Pirelli is pursuing with its mould cure retreading and how this product offer fits together with its decentralised Novateck pre-cure retreading, which is carried out by certified partners.
Continue ReadingFully automated Remix factory amongst the most modern in the Michelin group
With recent upgrades complete, Michelin gave Tyres & Accessories a tour of its fully-automated Remix retread remanufacturing plant in Stoke-on-Trent. Foot for foot, Michelin’s Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent Remix plant is one of the smallest in the Michelin group, but it is arguably also the amongst most modern and most flexible and most productive. Built at the height of Michelin’s industrial activities in Stoke, the Remix site was originally a manufacturing plant for new truck tyres. In 1968 Remix capabilities were developed and in 2000, the French tyre maker’s Encore process was added. Nowadays the Stoke location is Michelin’s UK headquarters and is therefore home to hundreds of executive, sales, marketing and administration-based employees. Across the road from the offices, over 350 are directly involved in the manufacturing process. New tyre production left decades ago, but Stoke is still a bustling centre of market leading retreading activity.
Continue ReadingKabat Group plans further growth through retreading
It’s never easy for a market leader to generate additional growth, but entering into a related business area that draws on existing expertise offers potential. Brothers Andrzej und Tadeusz Kabat have been certain of this in recent times. After a quarter century in which their Kabat Group has become an established force in the European inner tube market and has developed a name for itself in the manufacture of rubber compounding and technical rubber products, last year the company took its first steps in a whole new area: It has started producing agricultural tyres and plans to introduce industrial tyres by next year at the latest. In addition, since acquiring the former Stomil production facility in 2012, the Kabat brothers have become one of Poland’s largest retreaders – and plan to grow this business further.
Continue ReadingDunlop Aircraft Tyres to open US retread facility
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres is to establish its first retreading facility in the United States in early 2016. It is reportedly evaluating a number of potential sites in the South East of the USA. The Birmingham, UK-based company says it will use the base to boost its competitiveness across the Americas, particularly on popular narrow and wide-bodied jet airliners and military aircraft.
Continue ReadingConti offering third generation retreaded trailer tyres from October
Continental AG has announced that its first third generation truck tyres will be available as retreaded tyres from October. Specifically it will be the first hot retreaded ContiRe EcoPlus HT3 from the ContiLifeCycle plant in Hanover.
Continue ReadingBridgestone staying strong in a growing truck tyre market
The good news is that with demand up and with the company selling as big a proportion of retreads as ever, Bridgestone’s UK truck tyre business remains a key player in the UK truck tyre market. In the Republic of Ireland things are even better. However, premium manufacturers like Bridgestone have also seen the rise in the prominence of lower cost alternatives in recent years. While companies like Bridgestone continue to occupy leading positions when it comes to blue-chip and other national fleets, the wider context brings new challenges with it, especially when it comes to countering volume versus value strategies. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Bridgestone UK commercial director Greg Ward in order to find out more.
Continue ReadingEasi Recycling launches W8500H tyre baler
Responding to calls for a sturdy, heavy duty baling presses to handle the increased demand tyre baling, Easi Recycling has upgraded its range to include the higher output W8500H baler. Processing 400/500 tyres per hour, with an 85 ton pressing force and increased support pressing plate, the W8500H has been purposefully designed and manufactured for the tough material waste management of vehicle tyres.
Continue ReadingRMA: WISH proposals will decimate UK retreading
The latest so-called “WISH” Proposals for the storage of waste tyres would decimate the important UK retreading industry if adopted in their current form. That’s the view of Patrick O’Connell, president of the Britain’s Retread Manufactures Association (RMA) and MD of Bandvulc Tyres one of Europe’s largest independent tyre retreading businesses, who stated: “This ‘WISH’ document has been developed without any consultation whatsoever with Britain’s retreaders.”
Continue ReadingGraham Partners buys Desser Tire
Graham Partners, a private investment firm, has bought a majority shareholding in Desser Tire & Rubber Company and affiliated companies, Aero Wheel & Brake Service Corporation and Cee Bailey’s Aircraft Plastics. Collectively referred to as “Desser” the business is primarily a leading supplier of aircraft tyres and tubes from its Los Angeles and Memphis facilities to customers in over 100 countries.
Continue ReadingTRA: WISH waste tyre storage proposals ’arrogant’ and ‘counter intuitive’
Proposals by the ESA-led ‘WISH’ group have been branded counter-intuitive and arrogant by Britain’s Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) whose members handle more than three quarters of the country’s end-of-life tyre arisings. Commenting further on the proposals, TRA secretary general Peter Taylor OBE called the impression given by WISH that its consultation document was the result of wide ranging consultation to be wholly disingenuous.
Continue ReadingKraiburg appoints new UK and Ireland sales manager
Marcus Knoth has become the new Kraiburg Austria sales manager for UK and Ireland, effective July. Knoth started working for Kraiburg in March 2011 in the company’s tyre compounds business division. Since September 2012, he commenced working in the retreading sector as sales manager for several South East European and Scandinavian markets.
Continue ReadingOTR sector worth more than $100 million to China’s retreading industry
In its report, China Tire Retreading Industry - Overview and Forecast to 2017, Shanghai-based China Research and Intelligence states that China’s retreading market increased by more than ten per cent year-on-year to reach a volume of 18 million tyres in 2012. This volume represented a market scale in excess of RMB 6 billion (£575 million, $972 million). Most retreading is carried out by smaller operations, added China Research and Intelligence; of the 500 or so retreaders in China, in 2012 only 20 had an annual production of more than 100,000 units.
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