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KAZAKHSTAN
KAZ T-REMA International Focusing on OTR
Onur Aydin, Director, KAZ T-REMA International
radials manufactured by Michelin, which are retreading friendly. Moreover, Chinese tyre makers have started hiking their tyre prices in the recent past. “Chinese tyre makers are not improving the quality of the tyre but are just increasing their prices due to global rubber prices,” Onur said.
It has been observed that there is hardly any retreading in the whole region except a small or negligible presence in Kazakhstan. There are number of plants in Russia including one Recamic plant at the Michelin passenger car tyre factory in Moscow. Interestingly, some companies in Kazakhstan send their tyres all the way to Moscow to get them retreaded by Recamic technology. “For example, if we have 100 tyres and inform the Michelin Moscow facility, they could come by road and pick them up, get them retreaded and return them,” said Onur.
The mineral rich country is a big
repairing all kinds of tyres such as underground mining tyres, open pit mining tyres and construction tyres in diameters ranging from 25 to 51 inches. “We are convincing the market that the performance of retreaded tyres is same as that of new tyres,” he stated. The OTR price ranges from US$ 1000 to $50,000 and depending upon the application and usage, an OTR comes for retreading; ideally between 6 month to 2 years.
“We retread an OTR tyre at 40 per cent of the price of the new tyre,” he confided, when queried about the cost of retreading an OTR tyre.
KTR is organising workshops for potential customers to explain what it is doing with tyres and how the tyre performance could be improved with the help of a movie. “Sometimes the customer is already convinced but they still want to visit us and see how we retread or repair the tyre and how the operation works,” explained Onur. KTR is
It is difficult to change an industry mindset in a short period of time. Sometimes it takes years to persuade the market of the benefits of change. With Kazakhstan on the move, there is always a hope for better future for the retreading and tyre industry in the future. Kazakhstan is a flat, land- locked country. The mineral rich ninth largest nation in the world is fast emerging as a model CIS state, growing with a modern mindset, building all new modern cities for its growing middle class. That is reason enough to attract foreign companies to look at this market with lot of
adjoining countries. Our global product range may bring change in this country’s tyre business, which is largely controlled by the Russian, Belarussian and Chinese tye brands,” said Onur Aydin, Director of KTR International. The young and lively Onur is busy streamlining the Kazakh operation and reworking strategies for opening up the markets of the region for OTR retreading and the Michelin brand of OTR tyres. Michelin tyres have a longer life and can be retreaded up to 3 times and cover up to 1 million km. “This market is largely controlled by the
Skiving an OTR tyre at KAZ T-REMA
interest. KAZ T-REMA International (KTR) entered the market with lot of hope with just over a five year presence, trying its best to increase the penetration of OTR retreading and Michelin brand. “We are the official dealers of Michelin tyres in Kazakhstan and some of the
cross-ply tyres, while radials have low market penetration. We are convincing people to understand that a good radial has a much longer life and can be retreaded more than once,” Onur explained. Whereas, Chinese tyres are not retreadable as they are bias belted compared to the
mining hub for petrol, coal, uranium, gold etc. Companies like KTR are eying the growing mining sector and provide services like repairing and retreading the mining tyres. “The Turkish tyre conglomerate TATKO Tire Group was the first company to engage in the retreading of mining tyres in Kazakhstan,” Onur claimed. But the Kazakhstan operation is still much behind the expectations of TATKO and has to cover a lot of ground in the retreading sector. “We are not at the level that we were targeting at the time of entering this market,” said Onur cautiously. TATKO entered the Kazakhstan market in 2008, investing 4 million Euro in setting up the KTR International subsidiary. He further added, “We are waiting for the market to mature to the concept and working intensively to improve the volumes with every passing year.”
KTR has expertise in retreading and
KAZ T-REMA factory
encouraging discipline in the fleet owners about tyre maintenance and correct pressure but it feels that there is a huge amount of ground still to be covered.
There is always hope when existing clients come back with lots of positive mindset about retreading. “We feel satisfied when clients make good comments about retreading,” Onur stated. During the workshops, it has been explained that retreading is good for the environment as a lot of customers pay big fines to the environment ministry for piling up old tyres. Therefore, KAT is educating the clients to use good branded tyres which could have longer life compared to the cheaper tyres, which are not good for retreading and which end up being dumped in the backyard after using them only once. “The Government opened the gates for international brands like Michelin, Goodyear and Bridgestone in 1991, but their
36 Retreading Business