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KAZAKHSTAN
Karaganda Tire Retreading to Expand by 2013
mainly from China with a tyre chamber from the Beijing Double Life (Duobeili) Retreading Equipment Co, plus a few machines from Italy and the US. Interestingly, it is the only company in Kazakhstan with serious expansion plans owing to positive demand trends. “We have one 17 tyre chamber and are planning to source one more at the beginning next year,” informed Islam. When asked the reason for expansion, Islam quickly replied, “Demand is likely to improve as our existing clientele has started looking towards retreading positively.”
The company plans to import the second tyre chamber from the same company Beijing Double Life Retreading Equipment Co. When queried about the sales it expected by next year, Islam said, “We are expecting to hike the production to 600 tyres per month from 2013.” Currently, annual production is around 4,200 tyres and there are plans to raise the cumulative production to around 7,000 tyres annually from next year. The expansion would be undertaken at the existing plant as lot of vacant space is available. Meanwhile, the company plans to further tighten its grip over the business by opening a truck service centre too. “We will open the truck service centre in the next six months,” Islam assured.
The market has not matured to the concept of retreading and as a result suitable casings for retreading are not easily available. The retreaders are struggling to
find retreadable casings. But Karaganda Retreading solved the casings problem by importing them from Germany. “We barely find enough suitable casings for retreading in Kazakhstan and it is difficult to run the plant by relying upon the domestic market, therefore, we look towards Europe and source casings from Germany,” explained Islam. The company faced a lot of difficulties due to the negligible casing availability in Kazakhstan in the very first year of setting-up the plant in 2009.
The cheap Chinese tyres pose a formidable challenge to the fledgling retreading industry in the country. “We charge around US$ 300 to retread a tyre but Chinese tyres are available for merely US$ 500 making it difficult for the fleet owners to buy quality tyres good enough for any retreading,” Islam complained. The company survives as it takes an advance of 20-30 per cent of the retreading cost at drop off and the rest when the client comes to pick up the retreaded tyre.
Karaganda claims to have maintained good quality standards and received no complaints ever since it has opened its plant. “We maintain quality and as a result now receive tyres from far-off places like Almaty, Kostanay province in the North-West, Petropavlovsk in the North and Pavlodar in the North East of Kazakhstan,” Islam explained. It caters for clients in a 1000 km range from its base in Karaganda.
Islam Mamedov of Karaganda Tire Repair factory
he concept of retreading of is still very much in its infancy in the erstwhile Soviet state and now progressive independent country of Kazakhstan. The concept of retreading is struggling to find its feet in a market that overwhelmingly prefers price sensitive tyres imported from Russia, Belarus and China that are not good enough to be retreaded even for a first time. The Kazakh market is at the very first stage of understanding the concept where individual retreaders are trying to convince the fleet owners or a truck owner to use retreaded tyres. Interestingly, there are examples of people running a retreading plant efficiently here.
A big fleet owner based at Karaganda (original Kazakh name Karagandy but popular by its Russian name Karaganda) realised the importance of retreading its own tyres to cut increasing overheads from its expanding bus fleet and decided to set up its own retreading plant on the outskirts of Karaganda. “We operate one of the biggest bus fleets in Kazakhstan with around 600 buses from Man, Mercedes etc. We feel it is a good idea to have our own retreading plant to cut overheads,” said Islam Mamedov of the Karaganda Tire Repair factory. Initially, the company retreaded only its own tyres but now it has started collecting casings from the market too. It retreads around 400 tyres per month with 50 per cent in- house tyres and rest for the open market. Karaganda is the capital of
Karagandy Province and regarded as the fourth most populous city in Kazakhstan.
Hitherto, Karaganda Tire Retreading imported tread from China but once quality issues cropped up, it started looking for better options. “We now source Supercool from GIIB (Goodway) and sometimes Avon from Turkey,” revealed Islam, who used to be a wrestler and represented Kazakhstan internationally. It orders around 24 tonnes every three months. “We are very satisfied with the quality of GIIB and currently, source only the Malaysian
rubber,” added Islam. Interestingly, it also imports patches for tyre repairing from the Indian company Unipatch. Karaganda Tire Retreading has a fully automated plant with a monorail system and is regarded as the most organised and clean retreading facility in Kazakhstan. The plant was set up in 2009, running on plant imported
The Karaganda Tire monorail system and autoclave
38 Retreading Business