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QATAR & BAHRAIN
Phoenix Tyres Battle to Maintain Volumes in Qatar but Expands in India
Despite the slowdown in the Qatar retreading market, Doha based retreader Phoenix Tyres says production volumes have increased slightly during the last couple of months. “We have observed that people are asking for retreaded Japanese casings with increased demand and that is a good sign for us,” said Rameez Kutty of Pheonix Tyres. According to Kutty, Phoenix had forayed into the retailing of Chinese tyres but has observed bigger fleets starting to prefer Japanese tyres again. This, thinks Kutty, could be a positive signal for the retreading sector in Qatar.
In general, though, Kutty concurs with the general view of the market, and over the course of the past year the company has struggled to maintain volumes. “Despite prices going down, volumes are not increasing as good casings are hard to find. Finding them
is a full time job.
Phoenix’s Qatari plant is located in Doha’s industrial area and retreads 450 tyres each month.
The company has been in the retreading business for the last five decades. The company’s mother plant is located in the Raipur district of the North Eastern State of Chattisgarh in India, but the company has also operated for some time in the Middle East. The Indian plant retreads 500 tyres each month and now it is further expanding by signing a retreading JV with tyre major Apollo Tyres. The JV was signed towards the end of 2015, and a new plant is going to be opened by end November in Raipur near the mother plant. “The new retread plant will operate using Apollo tread and equipment, while the old plant uses Tolins and Indag tread,” informed Kutty. The
company has been a dealer of Tolins tread for the last 35 years in Raipur and also uses Tolins rubber at the Qatar plant.
The JV plant with Apollo will be equipped with a 12-tyre autoclave and will retread tyres using the precure process. The
mother plant has one seven-tyre chamber and offers retreading using both hot and precure processes.
Rameez Kutty of Phoenix Tyres
Hitek Expands into New Tyre Business
Qatari retreader Hitek Tyre Retreading WLL has announced a recent move into the sale of imported new tyres. Now the company is selling an array of Chinese brands in the Qatar market. The move is intended to support the company’s retread operation which is down mainly
due to the influx of low priced Chinese tyres “The Chinese tyres have become very popular in the market. Two to three containers of tyres are being offloaded in the industrial area in Doha on a daily basis,” said Paramjit Singh, Plant Manager, Hitek Tyre Retreading WLL.
With the influence of Chinese tyres on the increase, the retreader has opted to chase cash business as low volumes and long credit terms are further skewing the capital inflow into the business. The overseas retreaders are also moving cautiously as labour costs and rents are maintaining an upward trend, but volumes and margins have almost gone.
Hitek strongly believes that unless the government intervenes by hiking import duties on low priced Chinese tyres, the situation may not improve for the better in the near future.
The company operated two retread plants when retreading was at its peak in Qatar. “We had a good three years from 2010 to 2012, as Chinese tyres were costly, almost double the price of retreads, and retreading was regarded as a good alternative by fleet owners,” explained Singh. Even state owned transport company ‘Mowasalat’ bus service ‘Karwa’ used to run on retreaded tyres.
Hitek’s operational retread unit is located in the Industrial area of Doha, and runs on an 11-tyre
Rajmahal chamber. “We also opened a second retread plant about 5 km from here at a place called Saliyah at the peak time but this closed in 2013 after running for about a year,” informed Singh. Currently, the company sources tread rubber from the Ankeleshwar based United Rubber.
Production at the company’s first plant opened in 2007 is also down to around 150 tyres per month. “We used to retread more than 1,000 tyres every month in this plant but after 2012 the retreading market continued to cool down,” he said.
Low priced imported tyres have captured the market for two main sizes, 12/24 and 315. “We largely retread 9/20, 1000/20, 11/20, 12/20 etc. as Chinese brands are expensive in these sizes,” Singh explained. “Retreading is still competitive in 20 size tyres as new Chinese tyres in these sizes cost in between Riyal 700 – 950, whereas, retreading tyres of this size only costs around Riyal 350.
Paramjit Singh, Plant Manager, Hitek Tyre Retreading WLL.
42 Retreading Business