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NEWS
Kazakhstan to Export Retreaded Tyres to China
RMA Honours Jack Crangle
Pictured with Crangle are RMA Board members David Gray and Mike Carter, Kingpin Director Debbie Cartwright (Crangle’s daughter) and RMA Director Alan Bithell
The Retread Manufacturers Association in the UK honoured Jack Crangle, the Managing Director of Wem, Shropshire based retreader Kingpin, at the recent NTDA Annual dinner in Manchester
with a lifetime achievement award. Crangle, whose company is the UK’s only remaining passenger tyre retreader, is celebrating sixty years in the retreading industry this year.
A recently opened plant for the production of retreaded tyres will focus on exports to China, according to representatives of LLP Kazshinservis Company, based near the city of Rudny in the Kostanay Oblast region of Kazakhstan.
The plant for the recycling and retreading of tyres for both light vehicles and trucks started operations at the end of June of
about 170,000 light vehicles recorded, plus a further 35,000 commercial vehicles. In the future, however, the capacities of the enterprise may be increased, and then the company will be able to import casings from abroad.
"In a year, we can produce about 1,000 retreaded tyres and 500 tons of crumb rubber. Where are we are planning to sell the
The Rudny retread plant will be the largest of its kind in Kazakhstan
this year. Representatives of the company say that the total investment cost of the construction was KZT 150 million (US$ 815,000).
The authors of the project claim that the potential growth of the market for retreaded tyres in Kazakhstan is very significant due to the new legal framework in the area of tyre disposal approved at the end of last year. The legislation forbids the throwing away of old tyres, so now they must go either to recycling or to retreading enterprises.
"It is a unique enterprise for our region”, said the head of LLP Kazshinservis Farhad Askarov, “but with the signing of the new standards last year, when the disposal of used tyres became mandatory, the number of such companies all over the country will start to grow. Nevertheless, we are not afraid of competition. The potential of the market is huge."
At first, the company will be fully focused on working with casings from the region where it is based. According to Askarov, in the Kostanai region there are currently
products? In principle, clients from China have expressed a desire to buy our products under competitive contracts," said Askarov, adding that the company had already started to receive used tyres.
"Besides, there are already orders for retreaded of tyres inside the country," he concluded. It is currently not clear exactly how many of the retreaded tyres from the plant will be actually sent for export and how many will be supplied to the domestic market. According to company representatives, it is necessary first to estimate the volume of demand in the domestic market, taking into account the planned January 1, 2015 creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, whereby the company will be able to supply its products to Russia and Belarus on a duty free basis.
The new plant will be one of the largest retread factories in Kazakhstan. Its main competitor is likely to be the factory of Roesler, opened in Kazakhstan in 2010 and which produces tyres with a diameter from 25 to 51 inches.
Poor Quality Chinese Retreads Under Pressure
It is said that nothing happens in China without direction from above. So, a glut of press and Internet articles suggests that, at least in some parts of China, attention has turned to cleaning up the retread and second hand tyre market.
Reporters (remember this is in a controlled media) from newspapers visited one particular warehouse that was claiming to sell cheap tyres, sold as new, but when the reporters arrived with the law enforcement officers, they found a warehouse full of used and retreaded tyres.
The owner claimed that he could offer these tyres, which he claimed were as good as new, for 1400 – 1600 Yuan, half the price of a new tyre.
This visit was followed by further investigations in the area of Jimo, where more than 20 repair and
retread shops were closed or given deadlines to meet minimum standards.
The law enforcement officers said, “It was plain to see that these tyres were poorly retreaded or were just scrap. We had a bad feeling about this operation.” Several publications carried news items on how to identify retreaded tyres and warned against their purchase. However, they admitted that almost every tyre outlet sold retreaded tyres and that the quality varied greatly. There were standards that retreaded tyres had to meet, said the enforcement agents, and customers who had problems or suspected poor quality were urged to report the issue to the Trade and Industry Ministry on a local hotline.
6 Retreading Business