Kraiburg Austria maintains steady ship through securing supply, boosting sustainability

Retread supplier Kraiburg Austria navigated choppy 2022 waters successfully to achieve 92 million euro in sales, a figure the company called “satisfactory” and a demonstration of its crisis resistance according to managing director Stefan Mayrhofer. The company registered growth in high-performance compounds for hot cured retreads alongside stable mould cure figures, while developing its business in key Central and Eastern European markets.

Kraiburg developed the K708 design for local public transport (Photo: Kraiburg Austria)

New Kraiburg products in 2022 included the local public transport focussed K708, the Nordic winter K727 tread, and the 3PMSF-certified K738, which was operational on construction sites and public roads from September. Kraiburg Austria also bolstered its sustainability credentials via its membership of the Global Platform for Sustainable Rubber.

Reviewing 2022, Mayrhofer explained that securing supply chains was key to averting the worst forecasts in 2022: “As a result of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, we as a material supplier soon felt the massive effects in the availability of raw materials and the supply chain stability with immediate cost influences in the areas of provisioning, logistics and energy supply.”

The Austrian firm’s development team moved a large number of products and compounds from Russian raw material suppliers to European providers of synthetic rubber and carbon black in just a few months. Product manager Christoph Priewasser adds that maintaining consistency in the quality of its retread materials was successfully achieved according to customer feedback.

Looking forward to the coming year, Kraiburg has an “ambivalent” view of the retreading market as the fallout from war in Ukraine continues across a broad range of areas, according to sales manager Holger Düx “On the one hand, many companies took the opportunity to raise the prices of their products to a reasonable level in 2022 in the wake of the general increases in costs, similarly to ten years ago when the prices for natural rubber exploded abruptly,” he said. “On the other hand, many questions still remain unanswered for the coming year, despite the declining risk of a recession.”

Such questions affecting the retread market include the shortage of skilled labour; the future of the anti-dumping regulations and its possible effects on growing import figures on non-retreadable new tyres; and the still pending integration of retread tyres into tyre labelling. Bottlenecks in the availability of certain casing sizes continue to provide a headache. The company predicts further need for creative solutions in cooperation with partners in 2023. Mayrhofer said this will be supported by exploring automation and digitalisation options and “projects initiated with customers and universities or research institutions.”

Sustainability: an opportunity and a challenge

Kraiburg Austria ecology manager Gerold Schachner (Photo: Kraiburg Austria)

Sustainability remains an opportunity and a challenge as this business area continues to expand in importance. The EMAS-certified company joined the “science-based target” initiative in 2022, which is helping to set company goals harmonised with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming, explains ecology manager Gerold Schachner.

“We too want to make our contribution with appropriate goals and deduced measures adapted to our environment.” The company joined the GPSNR initiative, which aims to guarantee the purchase of sustainable natural rubber. It also wants to partner with its suppliers to achieve increased sustainability goals, while preparing for obligatory sustainability reporting. Rolling resistance and CO2 neutrality will be central criteria in compound development requirement specifications.

Latest Kraiburg treads

The 3PMSF-certified K738, which has been in use on construction sites as well as on public roads since last September (Photo: Kraiburg Austria)

The retreading specialist has continued to optimise its product portfolio. Its K708 local public transport product was launched in 2022 with field testing confirming its performance capability. The tread achieved a mileage of more than 50,000 miles while maintaining good traction properties and pleasant running noise. It also integrates special shoulder geometry in connection with the sidewall plate K-side to protect the tyre against kerbing damage.

The new winter K727 tread showed it could withstand the harshest conditions of the Scandinavian winter in a test conducted by Prüflabor Nord. The 3PMSF-certified K738, which has been in use on construction sites as well as on public roads since last September has scored high marks, among other things, thanks to its special tread geometry.

“In addition to our proven range of products, we are also working on new designs, naturally,” Priewasser said. “We are currently developing a new tread for regional traffic.”