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THAILAND
Hi-Tech Aims For Full Capacity
Hi-Tech Rubber forayed into precure retreading almost two years ago and now it is planning to run to full capacity. Hi-Tech is located about 100 km from Bangkok in the middle of Thailand and retreads around 2000 tyres by the hot cure process and 500 tyres by the precure process. “We have been initiated in the precure process by GIIB through Euro Tyres,” informed Naret Pecchateera Sart of Hi-Tech Rubber. The plant is located in a sleepy village, surrounded by farms. It was flooded by torrential rains last year and production halted for quite sometime. “Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season spreading through the provinces of Northern, Northeastern and Central Thailand along the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins,” Naret explained.
It seems that in the centre of the Thailand, the hot cure process still dominates and there is still a long way to go for the precure process to overtake hot cure. Interestingly, in the interior of Thailand, retreaders find their hot cure business is expanding. “Any type of casing can be cured by the hot cure process whereas, cold cure can be applied only on good casings. In the hinterland, people come with casings in a very bad shape and get the tyre retreaded at the lowest cost possible.” explained Naret. Therefore, hot cure is still preferable in the interior of Thailand.
Hi-tech sources about 4-5 tonnes of precure rubber from GIIB in a month while buying around 20 tonnes of camelback from a Rayong (about 200 km from Bangkok in the North) based manufacturer. It has one 12 tyre chamber and recently hiked hot cure capacity by adding moulds. “We started about 12 years ago with only four moulds, now we have 30 moulds,” Naret stated. Currently, the hot cure business is also operating under capacity due to a lean season. ‘We are running the plant with just 20 moulds and hope to run at full steam from next year,’ he said. Hi-Tech’s precure operation is also operating under capacity. “We are curing 4-5 tyres a day and hope to run the hot and
cold cure operation to the full capacity shortly,” he thinks. It could achieve to 1,500 tyres using the single chamber but we are currently operating on the just one third of the capacity. “We have enough capacity, if the business improves, we could increase number of shifts. We have seen positive trends in precure retreading as our production level has improved from last year. We hope to retread 1,500 tyres from next year,” Naret stated.
Naret Pecchateera Sart of Hi-Tech Rubber