Page 54 - RB-65-13-2

SPAIN
AER Director Pedro Espinosa and Secretary Mayte Perez in their office in Madrid
AER: Fighting the Retreaders’ Corner in Spain
The depth of the economic crisis in Spain has been well documented – a trade deficit equivalent to a staggering 10% of GDP and an unemployment rate of 25 per cent. This is an extreme situation in anybody’s language and it follows that the tyre market has suffered too. Indeed in the commercial vehicle sector, new tyre sales are down a massive 35 per cent year-on-year. However, according to Pedro Espinosa Chicote, Director of the Spanish Retreaders Association (AER), the retread sector has not been so badly hit, only suffering a decrease in the order of approximately 10 per cent. Indeed, Espinosa believes that once the economy starts to recover, the retread market will recover to its former level.
Not that the Spanish retread sector is devoid of problems. In an interview carried out at the AER’s offices in Madrid Espinosa explained that there are plenty of issues of concern to the Association.
The first, he points out, is the continued consolidation in the retread sector. Although the overall size of the retread market has remained more or less stable over the course of the last 15-20 years, the number of retreaders has, like many other European markets, decreased substantially. In 1996 there were 106 retread plants in Spain. Now there are only 39. Indeed, it would appear that this process is not yet over with a number of smaller retreaders still
falling by the wayside each year.
A quick analysis of the market reveals why this is so. This year the Spanish retread market is worth just under 550,000 units but is heavily dominated by Michelin who make up over 50 per cent of the market. The bulk of the remainder is shared between three medium/large retreaders making between 20-50,000 retreads a year and a further eleven medium players producing between 5- 20,000 tyres each. This leaves over twenty small retreaders, the majority of which make less than 2,000 tyres per year.
Compare this with, for example, the UK, which has a market of nearly 1 million retreads, but is structured similarly to Spain in that it is also dominated by Michelin followed by a small core of large retreaders producing above 20,000 tyres a year and a further 10 medium sized plants. In the UK, though, the consolidation process is more or less complete with the number of plants producing less than 5,000 tyres per annum standing at little more than five.
“The consolidation is Spain looks set to continue awhile yet”, agrees Espinosa. “Small plants are continuing to close year-on-year. However, we do have a core of modern, high quality plants in Spain that are set to dominate the market once this consolidation process has stabilised”.
One area which does concern Espinosa is the continuing
problem of a small number of pirate retreaders who are manufacturing without ECE certification. Although Espinosa believes these operators will eventually die out, they nevertheless cause a potential problem for legitimate operations, not least an ongoing image problem for the whole industr y. The difficulty is getting the relevant authorities to close such operations down, a problem the publisher of this magazine sympathises with, having experienced a similar
situation in the UK, which is still not resolved. BIPAVER has made a start on addressing this issue by beginning to compile an, as yet, incomplete list of ECE certification numbers on its website. However, Espinosa believes this is an area that needs to be dealt with by BIPAVER.
There are plenty of other areas that are of concern to the AER – not least the Retyre project and how to fund the costs it will bring, the increasing legislative activity of the leading tyre manufacturers with regards to the use of tread designs and the plethora of environmental legislation.
However, one subject, which is particularly close to the heart of
the AER is the future health of passenger tyre retreading in Europe. The key problem, agrees Espinosa, is that there is no longer an existing culture of selling car retreads in Spain and other than a lively 4x4 retread market emanating from Spain and Portugal, car tyre retread sales are relatively few.
As a result of this, most of the passenger retreads manufactured in the Iberian peninsula are destined for export markets - mainly South America, Canada and Northern Europe. AER’s key fear though is the potential for legislation in individual countries destroying the international trade in passenger retreading and turning car retreading into a local business. This fear is, of course, not without reason, the passenger retreading industr y Europe-wide having already suffered at the hands of legislators in Brazil before. This issue, says Espinosa, is another key area that AER is looking to BIPAVER to address at the forthcoming annual meeting in Bologna.
“The AER works very Spain works closely side by side with BIPAVER”, stresses Pedro Espinosa. “It is extremely important as the fundamental representative body for retreaders in the EC. Retreaders from all member states should make sure that they are represented through BIPAVER”.
Michelin dominates the Spanish retread sector with 50 per cent of the market share
54 Retreading Business