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UAE/OMAN
Al Dobowi Calls for Tightening of Retreading Standards in UAE
double that of other retreaders. We buy at around $4.5 per kg, whereas other companies buy it at only $2 per kg,” claimed Uday Kumar, General Manager, Al Dobowi.
The high input cost is also reflected in the final product. “Most of the retreaders buy and sell retreads at Dirham 280-300, whereas, we
cannot sell below Dirham 500,” informed Uday. The tyre retreaded at Al Dobowi gives a mileage of between 80,000 to 100,000 km whereas others only reach half this figure, he claimed.
With the UAE government tightening retreading norms and the market becoming highly competitive with the entry of low priced imported tyres, the going is getting really tough for retreaders in what is now one of the biggest retread markets in the Middle East.
meeting guidelines laid down by the authorities. “We give the utmost importance to quality by following the Bandag system, a world leader in the retreading process. Besides, we are investing in people and training to be up to date with the latest trends in the industr y and
Al Faisal Buy Mileage Retreading in UAE Expansion
Surender Singh Kandhari, Chairman, Al Dobowi Group.
Currently, the UAE market is crowded with more than two dozen retreading companies in the cities of Dubai, Ajman, Abu Dhabi etc. “Our plants are annually certified after auditing the retreading process but in total barely 5-6 retreading companies are certified and are following the standards laid down by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA),” complained Surender Singh Kandhari, Chairman, Al Dobowi Group.
The firm has a state-of-the-art retreading facility in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, retreading around 2,500 tyres per month. “We have made huge investments in equipment and infrastructure to run the retreading plant as per global standards. The government should take some preventive steps against those plants not following any standards,” he argued. The company is one of the oldest and biggest Bandag franchisees in the UAE, formed in 1976 to address the needs of a growing tyre management and service industry in the Middle East. Al Dobowi has now grown beyond tyre management into providing clients with all the solutions in the business of mobility; including batteries for motive power, lubricants, conveyor belt systems and technical rubber product as well as tyres and retreading services. Al Dobowi has complained of losing money on investments due to the presence of retreading plants not
that involves lots of investment from time to time,” stressed K andhari. The company has held a number of meetings with UAE authorities in the last quarter to discuss the issue. “There is another meeting in October and let’s see how things develop,” said K andhari. The UAE market is estimated to be around 12,000 tyres per month.
It has been suggested that in the past there were certain contradictions in the way ESMA had conducted the various checks of the retreading systems at plants before certifying them. Interestingly, ESMA has now contracted the world leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company SGS for the auditing of retreading plants in the UAE.
Al Dobowi believes that the validation authorities are ver y strict in conducting the audit of their plant in Jebel Ali and has called for same audit standards to be applied to other plants also. “If that happens, almost all the other plants would be closed, said K andhari” Currently, ESMA picks up two retreaded tyres randomly from the retreading plant and sends them to Saudi Arabia for testing before renewing the licenses of retreading plants In the UAE.
With the latest in hi-tech equipment in operation at the Al Dobowi plant, the cost of retreading is high compared to other retreaders in the UAE market. “Our raw material procurement cost is more than
United Arab Emirates is a market of many possibilities, and at a time when the whole of the Middle East market has crashed due to all time low oil prices, retreaders in the region are buying plants and expanding their influence in one of the biggest retread markets in the region. Ajman based Al Faisal Renew Tyres Factory has acquired Abu Dhabi based Mileage Retreading in order to expand in the oil rich Abu Dhabi, the Capital of UAE.
Al Faisal has been in the tyre business for the last 12 years, selling passenger car, truck and OTR tyres in the UAE market. “We have made good relationships with fleet owners operating all over the Middle East. Certain fleets avoid using low priced
clients from the company’s Ajman plant due to the distance of around 185 km between both Emirates. “We would be keen to run the Ajman and Abu Dhabi plants as separate entities to focus on different regions,” Faisal emphasised. The Abu Dhabi plant was bought around 9 months ago. The business possibilities are immense in Abu Dhabi as it is the biggest of the seven Emirates that make up the UAE. It is a major commercial centre due to its position as the capital of the country, and it accounts for 2/3 of the roughly $400 billion UAE economy.
On starting production at the new plant, Faisal said, “We are sure to kick-start production sometime in the month of October.” The
Faisal Ibrahim, General Manager, Al Faisal Tyre Trading.
36 Retreading Business
imported tyres and prefer to run only on Japanese casings, therefore, it still makes sense to expand in retreading,” said Faisal Ibrahim, General Manager, Al Faisal Tyre Trading.
Expansion in Abu Dhabi is considered as a wise business move as it is home to major oil refineries, and Al Faisal is supplying tyres to fleet owners running the oil tankers. Abu Dhabi holds 9 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves (98.2bn barrels) and almost 5 percent of the world’s natural gas (5.8 trillion cu metres). Oil production in the UAE was in the region of 2.3m barrels per day (bpd) in 2010.
Moreover, it is getting increasingly difficult to cater to Abu Dhabi based
company plans to retread 600-700 tyres initially and raise the volumes to 1,000 tyres per month over a period of time. The Abu Dhabi plant has two autoclaves of 4 and 8 tyres. UAE is a much bigger tyre market and there is scope for all kinds of tyre brands from Chinese to Michelin and Bridgestone. “Big fleet owners always prefer branded tyres like Michelin and Bridgestone, as they are more reliable and withstand the heat and loading conditions of the Middle East,” he added.
The Ajman plant of Al Faisal retreads 21tyresperdayona7tyre autoclave and it plans to raise the production to 28 tyres each day by the year end. The ten year old plant retreads truck tyres only. Last year