Retreading
The US Tire Industry Association (TIA) is to host a Global Retread Symposium on Wednesday, 4 November 2015, from 3pm – 5pm during the Global Tire Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “Our goal is to gather retread associations from around the world to discuss issues that cross international boundaries and impact the industry […]
A little more than a year after the inauguration of its new plant in Rosario (Santa Fe province), Marangoni Argentina has further expanded its operations with the installation of a fifth 4-metre press for Unitread and Precauch flat pre-cure retread strips, plus two other presses for the production of Ringtreads. The presses will commence operation shortly.
Weak demand and aggressive competition has led to seven-figure losses at the Laurent Reifen retreading plant in Germany, and in response the Michelin-owned company has decided to close its pre-cure retreading operations and lay off almost a quarter of its workforce. But it is questionable whether this measure will suffice to halt the flow of red ink required to write the firm’s balance sheet in recent years; apparently the complete closure of the Laurent Reifen site near Berlin has already been internally discussed.
Just over six months since the last time Tyres & Accessories met Michel Rzonzef at the Geneva Motor Show, the Goodyear executive has switched segments. When we met before he was vice president of the Consumer Tire Business at Goodyear EMEA. Now he is vice president of Commercial Tires EMEA. So, with the move from consumer to commercial still relatively fresh, T&A took the opportunity to discuss the development and direction of the truck and fleet tyre business with Rzonzef during the course of the recent Goodyear Fleet Symposium in Brussels on 14 October. Henk van Tuyl, Goodyear’s director of regional technology – Heavy Tires EMEA, also joined in with the conversation.
Vacu-Lug tyres has been supplying UK recycling operator Viridor for 30 years. According to the retreader and tyre management specialists, Vacu-Lug has been providing tyre supply/support as part of Viridor’s long-term contract with the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.
British aviation tyre manufacturer, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has identified a site in Mocksville, North Carolina as the preferred base for its first retreading facility in the United States. The world’s only specialist aircraft tyre manufacturer and retreader announced its decision to establish the facility in order to boost its competitiveness across the Americas.
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.
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.
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.
Marangoni Retreading Systems has hosted an event dedicated to its premium retread line: Ringtread Blackline. 25 customers from throughout Europe were selected as the most important representatives of the Ringtread System Network, meeting in Germany, nearby Henstedt Ulzburg.
A facility said to be Latin America’s largest retreading plant opened late last month in Brazil. The 6,000 square metre plant in Campina Grande do Sul, Paraná state, is operated by Ivo Group company Ivo Recap and has a 20,000 tyre a month capacity. The facility retreads truck, OTR, industrial and agricultural tyres.
On 2 September, US-based polyurethane, plastisol and recycled rubber product manufacturer Accella Performance Materials Inc. (known before May 2014 as Dash Multi-Corp) announced its acquisition of Rösler Tyre Innovators’ “Zeus” tyre fill business for an undisclosed sum. Zeus has become a subsidiary of Accella Polyurethane Systems will operate as Zeus Tyrefill Systems GmbH. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories, Paul Rösler Jr, joint managing director of Rösler Tyre Innovators, provides some further details of the deal and explains why the company decided to exit the tyre fill production business.
It seems we have a new UK commercial vehicle tyre market leader – Hankook. As well as featuring “Industrial and Speciality tyres” from pages 58 to 69 of this September’s edition, this month we have also taken a detailed look at the development of UK truck tyre market. This meant speaking to high level contacts at various manufacturers, wholesalers and third-party analysts in order to produce an original analysis of the status quo. Our analysis was compared to a similar exercise Tyres & Accessories undertook in 2009 in order to give the overview some longer-term perspective. The results are published on pages 24 to 43 for your reading pleasure and engagement.
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.”
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.
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