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THE EMIRATES
Unitread Hopes for Market Revival
Ghazi Fakhreddine, General Manager, Unitread Tyres Factory
Abu Dhabi based Unitread says it is currently having to cope with reduced levels of business as some of its big clients are operating much below their capacities. It has big fleet owners who have been clients for many years. However, the majority of them are currently only operating around 30% of their fleets due to the slowdown in the UAE market. “Some of our key clients don’t have work these days, so neither do we,” regrets Ghazi Fakhreddine, General Manager, Unitread Tyres Factory. It has the
capacity to retread 70 tyres per day but is currently making below 50 tyres a day.
Unitread has 3 chambers among which are two 11 tyre and one 8 tyre chamber, two being from the Indian company Elgi. When asked whether there was any prospect of a market revival in the near future, Ghazi said, “We have no clue about this as some of the major ongoing infrastructural projects are in the final stages of completion and that hits our clients as well. Until new projects start, the situation remains in
slowdown mode.”
Unitread orders less than one
container per month of tread from the Indian company Eastern Tread. The company’s clients include fleet owners sending around 400 tyres per month. “If any one of them went out of business, we would be in real trouble,” concedes Ghazi. Commenting on the UAE market where it finds retreaders competing fiercely with each other and using all kinds of tricks to retain their production levels. “Currently, there is unfair price competition among the retreaders,” said Ghazi. Unitread is a part of diversified group with interests in building materials, electrical wiring etc. “Since the scenario is grim at the moment, we are focusing on other business and merely holding onto our retreading business waiting for the market turnaround,” Ghazi stated. Unitread joined the retreading industry in 1995.
Extramile to Enter Egyptian Market in 2014
The UAE’s retreading market has not actually reduced in actual numbers in recent years, but neither have the volumes of the established players grown as per the expectations. This is largely due to increasing competition from the new and smaller players. Moreover, the margins of the bigger players have been skewed over the years, and as a result they are desperate to make a killing in other markets with potential such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt. It has been observed that investing in Saudi Arabia is safe
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