Marangoni Manufacturing Ringtreads for the World

In its Ringtread treads the Marangoni Group has a product that has been effectively developed since its introduction in the 1970s. When the Italian tread manufacturer and retreader took over Germany’s Ellerbrock GmbH in 1990, the share of total production dedicated to Ringtread production was no more than 20 per cent. Today global share has grown to around 50 per cent; Ringtreads are manufactured in Ferentino, Italy, at Ellerbrock in Germany, in Nashville, USA, and in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Presently in Europe around 55 per cent of treads sold by the Marangoni Group are Ringtreads. And, according to Guiseppe Ferrari, managing director of Marangoni’s Retreading Systems business unit, a still higher European market share is possible.

In the USA Marangoni has to date only marketed its Ringtread system, a measure admittedly undertaken for historical reasons. Competition from strong market participants such as Bandag, Michelin, Goodyear and Oliver Rubber meant that Marangoni needed to “come with a special product” in order to enter this market in 2003. After Michelin took over Oliver Rubber in the summer of 2007, however, retreaders bound to a particular system found themselves with no remaining large market participant that would still deliver treads to customers not operating under a franchise set-up. This will now change, comments the Retreading Systems managing director: The Ellerbrock facility near Hamburg in Germany is to manufacture cut-to-length flat treads for the North American market.

The Chinese retreading market could also one day become an important purchaser of Ringtreads, adds Guiseppe Ferrari. Already some twelve of the 60 million retreaded tyres produced globally every year are manufactured in China. The market will one day be the “world’s largest market”, even though to-date none of the retreading industry’s largest players have made themselves at home there. Since March this year Marangoni has, through a local offtake partner, supplied Chinese customers with Unitread treads, using compound sourced from Marangoni in Ferentino and Ellerbrock in Hamburg. Premium treads, on the other hand, will in future be delivered directly from Europe. “The market is not yet ripe for Ringtreads,” Ferrari concludes.