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REIFEN ESSEN
EIB New Products and a Positive View
EIB’s Commercial Director Bruno Carvalho was keen to tell Retreading Business how the company has seen some considerable growth recently and that the difficulties in the market, which had created serious issues for some retreaders and suppliers,
that exports to other European markets were also growing step by step, including to the UK, and Germany, and to the Middle East markets of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This was helped by supplying compound to new tyre manufacturers for the new tyre
had created opportunities for EIB to develop with new tread patterns, in truck and OTR precure, including new sidewall applications that allowed the precure sector to offer a “new look” tyre.
Interest in EIB has been strong and like other Portuguese manufacturers Bruno explained that the export market to Spain and France in particular was of considerable importance to the company, but
market.
According to Bruno, EIB offers European manufactured quality precure on par with the best but makes it available at very competitive prices enabling the Portuguese firm to compete with the Latin American producers that have entered the European market.
Kraiburg Review of 2011 and Preview of 2012
about the strategy of GIIB in the market place.
“Initially,” said Tai, “we had many companies in the Group and many brands and whilst from some perspectives that was a good thing, it was also confusing the market, so we brought everything under one corporate brand, GIIB. It was a big move, but it has simplified our operations and now we just need to ensure that everyone knows who we are.
“So, our presence here at Essen is more about developing the brand image making sure that people know that we are in the market and are able to supply retread materials, from compounds through to pre-cure treads when people are ready to buy our products. We are not desperate to steal market share with low quality and low prices, rather we want to see steady growth of our high quality premium products in the global market place. Anyone can sell containers of cheap pre-cure,
once or twice, but we are looking at a longer term strategy where we provide top class products with a top class technical service and where we can develop long term business with a regular clientele.
“If we go home from Essen with new orders from new clientele that will be a bonus. However, we have come to primarily consolidate our relationships with our existing clients, meet old friends and develop brand awareness. We are confident that the business in Europe will develop in due course.”
Asked about the issue of rolling resistance, wet grip and pass by noise Tai responded that Goodway had no real issues with the compounds or the tread patterns, these were technical issues that could be adjusted to meet the market requirements. So, once the casing issue had been addressed, the rest was simply a question of following the requirements.
Kraiburg Austria posted sales of over 108 million euro in 2011, recording the highest sales figures in its history after almost 50 years in existence. The retreading business accounted for a good 65 per cent of the sales. Half of the increase is due to the sharp rise in the cost of raw materials which was passed on to customers. The other half was generated by the retreading specialist through additional revenues in precure tread lengths from the K_base, K_tech and K_plus ranges and in mould cure compounds. It is difficult, given the current situation in the automotive market and the exceptional year in 2011, to say for definite how things will progress this year but business
at Kraiburg Austria at the moment is at the pre-crisis level of 2008.
Investment of four million euro in Geretsberg site
The fact is and remains that Kraiburg Austria is entirely committed to providing its customers with quality products and services. Investment is needed to maintain the customary high standards. Therefore the company is spending four million euro on improvements. Environmental protection is a key cornerstone of the company philosophy besides high quality and service standards. In keeping with its
green credentials Kraiburg Austria will have its own combined heat and power unit powered by internal combustion and natural gas. The system has been designed especially for the production site and will reduce the energy costs by around 10 per cent. The annual CO2 saving will be approximately 750 tonnes. The investment will be recouped after six years depending on subsidies. The unit is expected to go into operation in October. A large- volume mixer will already be on stream by the end of May. This promises an increase in productivity but it will also improve the homogeneity of the various compounds. A new fully automatic oil weighing station will add to these improvements. Furthermore, Kraiburg will be fitting new mould removal tools for presses in the production section in June. This will make it easy to remove retreads which can be more challenging and complicated from the moulds, such as siped retreads and winter tyre re- treads. An automatic temperature control for the cooling water will replace the existing manual control unit in the rolling mills. This will decrease energy costs and increase productivity at the same time – so it's a win-win situation for Kraiburg and its customers as well as the environment.
GIIB Playing a Long Game
GIIB, formerly known as Goodway, has been attending Reifen Essen for several years, as have many other players from Asia, all claiming to be gaining market share. Retreading Business often wonders how the domestic players are faring with this onslaught from Central and Southern America and the Asian producers,
surely these imports must be putting the local businesses under considerable pressure? This question is doubly important when the competition comes from a company such as GIIB with the brand strength that is Goodway.
Tai Qisheng, head of marketing at GIIB talked to Retreading Business
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