Page 51 - RB-69-14-2

CHINA
Volumes Down to One Third at Xiamen Jinjialun Rubber Co Ltd
authorities are aware that locally built tyres are poor in quality and cannot be retreaded.
Shandong based tyre makers are also increasing their manufacturing capacities, further bridging the price gap and leaving a marginal difference of RMB 300 only. “The time has come when the government should intervene to protect the retreading industry. Otherwise, more retreading plants will close down in the time to come,” he stated. The industry is calling for some kind of policy framework for protecting the interest of the struggling retreading industry and the implementation of strict quality standards in the tyre making factories.
Xiamen Jinjialun Rubber Co Ltd used to retread 3,000 tyres per month in the pre slowdown phase of 2012. “Production has continued to drop in the last three years reducing us to merely 1,000 tyres per month,” Huang stated. The company is also a tread
rubber client of Jianxin Rubber and orders around 12 tonnes per month, whilst it sourced more than 30 tonnes per month previously. It has one 18 tyre chamber.
Interestingly, the same Chinese retreaders blaming low quality tyre makers have started selling new tyres also. “We have started selling the new tyres, where we are doing well as everyone prefers only the new tyres,” says Huang. Demand for new tyres is surging and the retreading industry has been declining in the last three years.
The company buys casings for retreading from Zhejiang Province close to Fujian. When asked if any particular part of the year is good for business, Huang added, “Seasons don’t make any difference on the volumes as numbers are almost the same throughout the year.” The Xiamen region has around 10 retreading plants.
Huang Jian Nan, General Manager, Xiamen Jinjialun Rubber Co Ltd
The grievances of the majority of the small and middle level retreading companies are almost identical - the market is flooded with cheap and low quality domestic tyre brands, there is a shortening gap between the price of new tyres and retreaded tyres and government has banned the use of retreaded tyres on long distance highway fleets. “The situation was not so alarming earlier but volumes have been consistently dropping over the last three years,” complained Huang Jian Nan, General Manager, Xiamen
Jinjialun Rubber Co Ltd.
Interestingly, it has been widely observed the Chinese authorities talk about protecting the environment from pollution but are altogether indifferent to the plight of the domestic retreading industry, which clearly indicates it falls far short of what is required in practice. Besides, there are clear cut double standards as all government owned Shanghai city buses runs on international brands like Michelin and Bridgestone, and all are retreaded in its own retread unit in Shanghai. The
Tech International to Focus on
Training and Educating the
China Market
Global tyre repair and wheel service products maker US based Tech International opened its China
operation in 1995 in Wuhan in Central China. The production facility was started by its wholly owned China