Mine Operators Beat Path to Malaysian Retreader’s Door
The clamour for quality large size OTR tyres has lead Malaysian retreader Goodway Integrated Industries to invest heavily in this sector. In March the company opened a new RM6 million (£862,000) facility in the town of Nilai, and the plant has increased its capacity to offer a host of services, including what Goodway CEO Tai Boon Wee believes to be a world first – the pre-cured retreading of 57-inch tyres.
Most of this capacity is utilised to meet the needs of Australia’s mining industry. With dozen of mines operating vehicles that require large OTR tyres, demand from this part of the world is astronomical. Container loads of OTR tyres requiring retreading are shipped from Australia to Malaysia every month. And when the price for a new tyre, if one can even be sourced, is taken into consideration, it is easy to see why mining companies go to all the effort of sending their old tyres halfway across Asia. “A new 57-inch OTR tyre now fetches up to US$70,000. Our ex-factory price for a revived tyre is only $13,000,” Mr. Wee told local media source The Star.