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REIFEN ESSEN
Insa Turbo’s Export Manager Miguel Gandia
Juva – Latvian Retreader Seeking Casings
Casing shortages are a big issue for all retreaders during the current economic climate. Operators are making more use of their tyres, extending their use to save on the cost of replacement and as a result many of the tyres previously available for retreading are now being used beyond the point of retreading. Add to this the huge demand for TDF in the Far East and tyres are simply vanishing from the market.
So, for Latvian retreader Juva, the aim of attending Reifen 2012 was not so much to sell their product,
but rather to attract the attention of casing dealers willing and able to supply into this Baltic state. The former Russian state has good links with Scandinavia and northern Europe and equally has strong commercial links into Russia, which itself has a burgeoning demand for casings and retreaded tyres.
Manager Denis Maligin explained that the company was making good progress in developing retreading in Latvia, but that the main issue preventing expansion was the lack of casings.
OBO – New Faces – New Approach
Kabat – Moving Into Retreading
Obo Banden has long been a regular at exhibitions across Europe with its speciality retreads for the grasscare and landscaping sector. However, a steady market, a routine practice and a long standing team had often meant that the Obo stand had little news to offer. However, at this year’s Reifen it was all change for Obo Banden as Ursula Abels, the new general manager of Obo Banden was proactive about telling the world about the company’s latest developments. A visit to the Obo stand revealed that in addition to the usual range of retreads the company was now offering a hot cure OTR package.
The hot cure offer is part of a plan to develop the company by the new management team headed up by managing director Herman Hutten. Herman explained that the company was planning to expand its business interests not only by adding to the range but by developing the way it sold its products.
The new production line for hot
retreading came from the now closed Hiperimperio plant in Braga, Portugal and had only recently been installed prior to the Reifen show. Initial production is for 25 inch OTR tyres but the plant can accommodate up to 38 inch tyres.
The other big change has been the change in management that has seen a younger, enthusiastic team take over the sales operation. Ursula Abels added that the firm was looking for additions to its sales team in northern Europe and was also hoping to reach out to wholesalers and distributors in various markets across Europe.
The Hutten Group is a growing multinational with interests in construction, steel and the tyre industry with operations based in the Netherlands, Germany and Romania. The tyre business focuses on the agricultural sector but has also branched out into aircraft tyres, and earthmover tyres, and has even refurbished tyres used as lock gate fenders in some of the biggest waterways locks in Europe.
Insa Turbo Promote EcoLine Range
Polish rubber processor Kabat focussed on its inner tube production at Essen, but alongside the inner tubes was a display of precure tread. Alfred Mańko, export sales director for Kabat explained that the company was a rubber specialist that supplied precure tread in the domestic and Eastern European markets alongside their own manufactured tubes and rubber mats. Production used only natural and SBR rubber and at present there was no capacity for reclaim rubber.
As a producer of tread though the company had been a supplier to
Polish truck tyre retreader Gumi Borechewa, which Kabat had only recently taken over and so was now not only a materials producer but also a retreader in its own right. Kabat employs some 550 staff and has produced some 5.5 million inner tubes over the past 20 years plus huge volumes of flaps, mats, compounds and treads.
With exports to some 60 countries and customers including the Polish military and the German Bundeswehr, Kabat is a small company that is making a big impression in the global rubber sector.
The main focus on the stand of Spanish retreader Insa Turbo at Reifen 2012 was the company’s Ecoline range of retreaded car tyres. According to Export Manager Miguel Gandia, the main feature of these tyres is that only one brand of casing is used per tyre size, which allows the company to standardise the weight of the tyre. The brand used, says Gandia, is usually Michelin but Firestone and Hankook are used on some sizes. Thanks to factory investments made by Insa, the EcoLine range also comes with a guarantee of optimum balancing.
Key performance characteristics are claimed to be lower rolling resistance and longer
mileage. Overall, the
EcoLine range is claimed to offer the same performance as new tyres with a cost per mile between 30 and 50 per cent cheaper.
In addition to EcoLine, Insa Turbo were also displaying several new products. Firstly, the company was launching the Super Track 4x4 tyre – a new 15” tyre available in 31 x 10.50 R 15, 33 x 12.5 R 15 and 205/70 R 15 sizes to overcome the shortage of sizes for retreading in 15” sizes
Also new is a new
range of winter retreads called Pirineos. The tyre features a directional multi-siped winter rain pattern with two central grooves. The tyre is available in eight 45-65 series sizes in 14 – 17” wheel diameters as well as 3 van sizes. Last but not least, Insa have been working with Hankook on their new Alpha Tread truck tyre, which is a premium mould cure truck tyre using only premium quality casings and incorporating a similar compound to Hankook.