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TYREXPO AFRICA
Dijan Rigo, Commercial Coordinator, Overseas, Vipal Rubber
African markets. “We have a good distribution network on the tyre repair side from Johannesburg through our distributor Tyre & Retread Supplies, as well as in the whole regional South African market and East Africa too, particularly in the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda Sudan and Ethiopia,” he said at Tyrexpo Africa recently.
“Our biggest presence is in Tanzania, where we also supply retread material to a retreader, which operates three truck retread plants,” said Rigo.
Vipal is keen on strengthening its presence in the African market in the
years to come. “We are focusing on increasing our presence in Africa but with the increasing presence of Chinese tyre brands in the price sensitive African market, it further makes it difficult for us to compete with our high value product range,” he said.
trains the workforce in its retreading plants in Africa and feels that the market has the opportunity to grow on the used machiner y side.
Galgo is in touch with a number of Europe based retreading plants that are up for sale. Africa is a good market for closed plants sourced from Europe. “We get specific requests from our customers in Europe and we inspect the equipment. If it is in good shape, we look for retreading plants in Africa for the machinery,” he said.
The Galgo plant in Mexico produces 2,500 metric tonnes of tread rubber each month.
At the same time, Galgo is keen on increasing its presence in the South African market. “Our participation at the Tyrexpo indicates our interest in growing in this market. We are studying the market to analyse and identify our priorities in this market,” summarised Francisco Ibarzabal, Director, Commercial, Galgo.
Sun Rubber Looking for Opportunities in South African Market
it is difficult to enter these markets on the tread rubber side, therefore, until there is a level playing field for global tread rubber brands, it is difficult to penetrate in the region,” he added.
Vipal, however, continues to work on strengthening on the tyre repair side in the South African and East
Malaysian tread rubber maker and ecoWise Group company - Sun Rubber Industry Sdn Bhd is looking to expand in the African market. “We are looking forward to new opportunities in Africa. This is our
the company has continued to improve its sales in the African market, with shipments to the region almost doubling since 2014. The public listed firm has hiked mixing capacity by 1,000 tonnes at
Joseph Gow, General Manager, Sales and Marketing (Rubber Compound) along with Edward Lee, Sales Manager (Exports) Sun Rubber Industry
Galgo Developing Used Retreading Equipment Market in Africa
Used retreading plant machiner y is being routed from Europe to feed the price-sensitive African market. Major Mexican tread maker Galgo has supplied one second-hand plant from Europe to Uganda last year as part of increasing its activity in the retreading sector in Africa. “We have supplied one plant to Kampala, Uganda in 2015 and it is operational now,” informed Edvard Saastamoinen, Sales Manager, Galgo at Tyrexpo Africa in Johannesburg recently.
The Mexican tread maker says it has
a fairly good presence in the African market. “We have good contacts in East Africa, such as in the countries of Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda, as we are supplying tread rubber to these markets, but we also open to relocating used retreading plants and equipment in good shape from Europe,” he said. The company is in touch with their African clients to supply equipment also.
The Kampala plant retreads 20 tyre each day and has room for further expansion as the plant has been made for two autoclaves. Galgo also
second time at Tyrexpo Africa and we find the response is fairly good,” said Joseph Gow, General Manager, Sales and Marketing (Rubber Compound) Sun Rubber Industry. The company has opened the market of Eastern Africa, where its product quality has been accepted. “We have started exclusive dealerships in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania,” he said.
Now the company is looking for opportunities on the western coast of Africa. The tread manufacturer finds that price is no longer a major factor in the African market. “The market is shifting towards quality and after sale service. Fleet operators are now increasingly considering issues such as correct patterns, mileage etc,” said Edward Lee, Sales Manager (Exports).
The company, however, has yet to open the South African market, “We are working on opening it soon,” said Gow. Sun Rubber has already found a few potential customers in South Africa and hopes to start working with them soon. However,
its Seremban based plant. It has installed a new mixing line imported from Germany and increased the compounding capacity from 2,000 tonnes to 3,000 tonnes per month in April 2015.
Sun Rubber has emerged as the first rubber compounder in Malaysia to achieve three product certifications by the standards body SIRIM as the key raw material requirements stipulated in the MS224 retreading standard. These are MS1208 for precured tread, MS1097 for hot cure compound and MS1394 for cushion gum.
Sun Rubber has capabilities in design, R&D, manufacturing, product testing and distribution of rubber compounds and exports 60 per cent of its liners to over 30 countries spanning across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe.
Its range of products includes pre- cured tread, cushion gum, orbitread compound and camelback. In addition, Sun Rubber also produces customised and specialty rubber compounds for mining, automotive and other industries
Edvard Saastamoinen, Sales Manager with Francisco Ibarzabal, Galgo’s Commercial Director
38 Retreading Business