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INDIA RUBBER EXPO
Mahabir Switches to Recamic Process
towards good quality and technology,” he emphasised.
He further stressed, “Our customers have started understanding that Michelin is expensive initially but at the end saves lot of cost in terms of cost per km.”
With BIS standards in the pipeline, the retreading standards in the country are likely to be improved. “We hope the BIS standards will be implemented in the next three years and that will improve retreading standards a lot,” says Agarwal.
Moreover, the government’s increasing focus on improving the highway infrastructure, which is
expected to lead to further hikes in the average speed of vehicles, is also expected to have a significant impact on the retreading sector. “The increase in average speed will force the retreading sector to upgrade its plants and process equipment to hike retreading standards,” he said.
According to Alok Agarwal, Mahabir is also planning to build a second plant next year. “Once the current plant touches the 1,000 tyre mark, we will build a new plant at a new location and we hope to reach the target this year,” he said. The plant location will be in Northern India and will be double the size of the current plant.
Mahabir Tyres is the first retread company in Northern India to make a leap towards introducing Recamic retreading technology into the region. Located in the hub of transport industry – Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar on the outskirts of Delhi and on the highway that goes towards Punjab, the transport hub is home to some of the biggest fleet owners in Northern India. “We have shifted to Michelin Retread Technology – Recamic about two years ago. We have made the
the transition to the new process, Alok Agarwal commented, “The transition is smooth as we have shifted for good to Recamic to upgrade ourselves as per changing times in the market.”
The company’s investments are in line with the current trend for retreading companies to upgrade their plants due to the fact that global tyre makers as well as auto makers are entering the Indian market. “We strongly believe that the Michelin Recamic process offers
Market to Pick Up by Mid-2015 Says Sanjeev Tyres
Sanjeev Tyres hopes the market will pick up in 2015 as last year was a tough year for the industry. With the new government in power, the Himachal Pradesh based retreader believes that pending projects will get the green signal and business will pick up. “2014 was a tough year and we hope the market will slowly pick up steam,” said Sunil Kumar of Sanjeev Tyres.
The company have two plants in the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh, with the company’s retread mix of 600 – 800 tyres per month depending on the mood in the market. The company’s two plants in the districts of Una and Bilaspur retread 300 and 500 tyres per month respectively. The Una plant started in 1996, while the bigger Bilaspur plant retreads around 500
market including Midas, Tolins etc. but is currently using Vamshi rubber. “Results are good with Vamshi, the product has good market feedback. We have been using Vamshi from last 10 years now,” he said.
The retreader sources around 5 tonnes of rubber from Vamshi every month. Regarding challenges in the market, Sunil said, “Long credit is a major issue in the Himachal market. Several of the bigger players are giving long term credit, which is killing the business for middle level retreaders,” Sunil complained. The company has to offer minimum three months credit in the market to survive in the business. Currently, the business is slightly slow as it is the off-season in Himachal Pradesh. The market
tyres per month. “We are covering an area of 250 – 300 km,” he added.
The firm says it has tried all kinds of tread suppliers available in the
would be expected to pick up from July onwards. “December to February is a severely cold period and business has become very slow,” he said.
Sunil Kumar of Sanjeev Tyres
changes in the plant as a transformation to one of the most advanced retreading systems,” informed Alok Agarwal, Managing Director, Mahabir Tyres. Currently, two plants in Northern India have shifted to the Michelin system, the other being based in Haryana.
The plant has been upgraded and changed with the Titan brand equipment as per Michelin standards. “The idea is to present ourselves as one of the most modern retreading plants in Northern India,” said Agarwal. The plant retreads a maximum of 800 tyres per month, around 150 tyres by the Recamic process and the majority with TVS Tread. On
the best technology in retreading, therefore, we have decided to go for it,” said Agarwal.
With regards to future projection for the Recamic process he commented; “We think the share of the Recamic process is growing steadily, and the market has started accepting the new system. We hope to double Recamic production to 300 tyres within the next six to eight months,” assured Agarwal. The Delhi based firm hopes to hike production levels to 1,000 tyres per month in fiscal 2015-16 and remains focus on retreading TBR tyres. “Indian customers are now willing to spend money for a good product. Now the trend is changing
52 Retreading Business