On 2 May, Continental will drive the first mile of a two-year journey that will bring its portfolio of truck tyres and services to fleet customers throughout Europe. By the time the Continental European Roadshow draws to a close in 2025, it will have covered more than 9,000 miles and visited 35 countries.
Bandvulc’s Ivybridge retreading plant is now a Continental LifeCycle facility. While continuing to design, engineer and manufacture Bandvulc-branded retread tyres, the site will align more closely with Continental’s existing LifeCycle plant in Stöcken, Germany. Bandvulc stresses that the plant’s new LifeCycle status won’t impact upon job security for its workforce, confirming that there are “no redundancies taking place as a result of the Continental rebranding.”
In addition to saving money, truck fleet operators can reduce their vehicles’ environmental footprint by adopting a tyre programme that includes retreading. In light of the current public debate about CO2, Continental has shared on how its ContiRe retreads can help.
Almost 60 ContiLifeCycle partners around the world, including 30 in the USA and Canada, currently retread tyres using ContiTread treads. Demand for these pre-cure treads is growing in North America. For this reason, Continental is raising production this year at its February 2018-inaugurated tread plant in Mount Vernon, USA by 300 per cent compared to 2018 levels. A second shift was added in March to facilitate this.
Retreading capacity at Continental’s Hannover-Stöcken site, located near the German tyre maker’s headquarters, has grown faster than many anticipated. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories, the director in charge of Continental’s Retread Business shares that the second expansion phase that began late last year will be ready during the course of 2015. And Christian Sass points out that while this second round of work will exclusively focus on furthering Continental’s mould cure retreading capacity, this doesn’t in any way mean pre-cure retreading and the company’s ContiTread partners are not being looked after.
Following a two-year planning and construction phase, Continental reports the successful implementation of the first operational phase at its ContiLifeCycle facility in Hannover, Germany. “Following the official plant opening last December, the series production of retreaded tyres began in the plant at the start of the year,” reported the tyre maker on 13 June. “With this, important goals in regards to product characteristics have already been achieved. Furthermore, additional process-related enhancements are expected due to ongoing process improvements.”
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