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AFRICA
sector. “We are also affected by Chinese tyres, but we hold our ground,” he said. The company retreads at about Rand 1,700 compared to new Chinese tyres, which are available at ca. Rand 2,500.
The road link from Durban to Johannesburg is interesting as the region is regarded as the busiest transport hub with containers/trucks moving with sugar cane, timber etc., in between the Durban and Johannesburg network and heading up to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The company believes that having retread plant in the region would
serve this developing market. Longlife Tyres’ Chatsworth plant is located in the Southern part of Durban and retreads around 2,500 tyres each month. It has three branches in Pietermaritzburg, Port Shepstone and Bethal for tyre collection. It has three 25-tyre chambers with one spare, and sources around 25 tonnes of tread rubber from Bandag. It picks-up and delivers the tyre at the doorstep and also deals in stock retreads. Longlife has carried out upgrades at the Johannesburg plant during the last two years, including installing two new chambers.
month around 5-6 years ago,” said Tofts, “but due to the unstable economy, which mostly survives on donor aid; corruption scandals have mired the business confidence in the countr y.”
Besides, the inherent market challenges, Chinese tyres are also making it difficult for the retreading industry, with a number of transporters shifting to tyre imports
from China. Mapeto survives because it operates in the price sensitive bracket. “We retread at $90 compared to Chinese new tyres, which are available at around $160, whilst our main retread competitors are offering retreads at around $140,” said Tofts. When asked, how it is possible to operate at this price, Tofts answered, “We buy tread rubber at a good price.”
Nexor Tyres to Relocate Durban Plant to Bigger Premises
South African retreader Nexor Tyres is planning to relocate its retread plant to new premises outside of Durban in a new industrial area in Cato Ridge. “We will shift to the new premises by the end of 2016 as our current site is very congested and it has become difficult to move the products due to the scarcity of space,” said Willem Janse van Rensburg, Managing Director, Nexor Tyres.
Bandag partner Nexor is a one-stop solution
provider as it is
a multi-brand
tyre dealer that
offers a range of
tyre services
including
retreads, tyre
accessories, alloy
and steel
wheels, tyre
repairs, 24 hr
breakdown
service, wheel
balancing and
alignment etc. Besides Durban, the van Rensburg family has two additional retread plants in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal and East London in the Eastern Cape Province on the Southeast coast of S Africa.
Nexor’s three plants retread around 3,000 tyres per month, the Durban and Richards Bay plants accounting for 1,800 and the East London plant around 1,200 tyres each month. The company sources about 45 tonnes of tread rubber from Bandag every month.
Nexor hopes to scale up the production by around 15-20 per cent post relocation as it adds additional equipment in the new and bigger plant. “We will order one more 25 tyre autoclave and a buffing machine for the Cato Ridge plant, which is almost double the size of the present plant,” said van Rensburg. Currently, the company runs the operation on two 25 tyre autoclaves at the Durban plant. Despite a generally subdued
economic scenario, retreads continue to hold their ground in the South African market, growing by 5 per cent overall, whereas, new tyre sales are down by 10 per cent. Against this background, and despite concerns about rising labour costs and the price of tyre imports, Nexor continue to grow, is looking to add more equipment and is retaining a positive outlook for the future.
Despite the fact that three of the
four big South African tyre makers have stopped producing TBR tyres due to the dumping of Chinese imports, van Rensburg notices a slight easing of the situation. “Due to surging labour costs and firming rubber prices, the Chinese have had to increase their prices by almost 15 per cent,” he said, “and this has made it a bit easier to sell stock retreads. There has also been a general change in perception with fleet owners increasingly preferring quality over price. We educate people to invest in branded tyres as they are made as per requirements, applications etc,” he added.
Nexor is also aiming for expansion at its two other plants. “We will do some kind of expansion at the Richards Bay and East London plants in the next five years,” he confirmed. “We also hope that the market will become more stable in the next 2-3 years and that retreads will continue to hold an edge,” he observed.
Willem Janse van Rensburg (left), Managing Director, Nexor Tyres with plant manager
Mapeto Tyres Eyes Expansion in Lilongwe
Malawi based Mapeto Tyres has plans to open a retreading plant in the country’s capital Lilongwe. Currently, the company sends almost 25 per cent of its production from its Blantyre based plant to Lilongwe every month. “Our trucks drive the 500 km to Lilongwe each month to bring around 300 tyres from the capital. Once the volumes from Lilongwe touch around 400 tyres, we will put up a retread plant to retread them there,” said Nick Tofts, General Manager, Mapeto Tyres during a discussion at Tyrexpo, Africa.
According to Tofts. As long as the volumes remain below 350 tyres per month, it is more economical to service Lilongwe from the Blantyre plant. “Once the volumes cross 400 plus per month, we would able to
Moreover, the transport industry is shrinking as many big fleet owners have left the sector, which has had a direct impact on the retreading industry of what is one of the smallest countries in Africa.” Mapeto Tyres started about four years ago as a Bandag partner but has since adopted a new business model that suits the price sensitive nature of the market. “We now source tread at good prices,” he commented. The Blantyre plant is among the largest retreaders in Malawi, retreading around 850 TBR, OTR and agricultural tyres each month.
Currently, Malawi has four retread plants - Entyre (Maxiprest), Treadmaster (Bandag), Mapeto Tyres and a Chinese plant. In addition, there is also a big transporter with
Nick Tofts, General Manager, Mapeto Tyres
bear the expenses of a plant, a manager and 3-4 labourers,” he added.
Commenting on the Malawi market, Tofts observed; “The economy is in bad shape in Malawi, and the local currency remains weak and unstable against the US Dollar.
around 300 trucks, who operates a captive retread plant for its fleet. According to Tofts, the Malawi retread industry is currently going through tough times, with the total retread market coming down to 2,500 tyres per month. “The market used to be around 4,000 tyres per
44 Retreading Business