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REIFEN ESSEN
24.05.–27.05.2016
reifen-messe.de
Kraiburg Holding Steady
Austrian retread supplies specialist Kraiburg took their Atrium location at Essen for the final year. The stand was focused on people, there were no tyres or treads, just banners hanging from above. The Kraiburg approach had moved from the hard sell to a more personal style – not that it was ever really anything other than personal.
Thorsten Schmidt admitted that the pre-cure retread market had been in decline now for the past 4 – 5 years, down by at least 25 per cent, and a further drop of 15 per cent expected in 2016., making for a gloomy future for all concerned. However, on the hot cure front there appeared to be some stability, and things were looking more positive – something that was reinforced by the hot cure developments that Retreading Business saw at both RuLa and Mueller in our visit to Germany for issue 2/2014.
Hot Cure in Europe is now being seen as a premium quality retread, it looks like a new tyre and allows the retreader to compete with the new tyre market on quality as well as price.
“Kraiburg needed to look at its
own situation,” said Schmidt, “We needed to act to re-organise, re- structure, and we had to restructure our management systems. We had to reduce our costs.
“We started to refocus our sales teams to focus on our customers’ needs. We started to look at how we could better serve our clients. Our sales were down, our volume was down and we lost around 50 per cent of our total volume. We reduced our staffing by 20 per cent – through natural losses rather than redundancies, and we managed our transformation carefully. We are not happy that we had to do this, but we are satisfied with the results.
“We are under pressure from management and shareholders still, and we have not yet finished the reorganisation, but we are increasingly open to changes. We need to find new opportunities and focus on those new ways of operation.
“We need to find new fields for development, and we have two or three options open to us. By 2017 we plan on being in a better position and ready to step forwards.”
Marangoni Focuses on Imparting the Quality Retread Message
development that Marangoni has created its Blackline range of premium retreads with the aim of minimising rolling resistance without compromising mileage. In fact, during the Essen show Marangoni launched a number of additions to the Blackline range, cases in point being the new RDL FE and RTL FE designs, which are characterised by their very low rolling resistance which increases fuel efficiency while extending mileage.
The RDL FE tread is intended for drive axles, with 16.5 mm deep grooves designed for the 70 and 60 series.
In contrast the RTL FE is intended for non-drive axles for long distance transport, with 11.5 mm deep grooves designed for S55 tyres.
Both are original Marangoni tread designs for operators in the long distance transport segment. The rings are constructed with a newly developed compound able to provide both grip and mileage, ensuring extremely low rolling resistance and decreased fuel consumption.
RDL FE and RTL FE are Marangoni’s latest developments within its Blackline range. However, recent months have seen three other new Blackline-patterns being successfully launched: RDR HM3, ICE100 and WSS.
The RDR HM3 pattern is intended for the drive axle of high-power and torque vehicles, primarily operating on domestic and regional routes, especially in harsh conditions.
This tread has provided impressive results with regard to durability. Testing has shown that the new RDR HM3, in comparison with tyres featuring the same pattern and intended use, produced outstanding results with up to +20 per cent of increased mileage. The tread-width has been increased by 10 per cent compared to previous generation products and the high "material/void" ratio ensures high mileage and excellent traction. This performance allows the Blackline RDR HM3 to be a direct competitor to even the best new tyres on the market today.
The ICE100 line is the new studdable design for drive axles, developed according to the higher Blackline standards. It is a product developed for use in extreme winter conditions, especially on icy roads, and mainly for vehicles operating in long distance application. The pattern is characterised by heavily siped
blocks and an open shoulder row, designed to cut into the ice and provide excellent traction with, or without the use of spikes under extreme winter-conditions.
WSS, the new Blackline ring line for supersingles launched in 2015, has a linear design for non-driving axles and features the 3PMSF marking to indicate that it meets the demands of a market requiring greater safety, especially in winter conditions. The "twisterlock" technology siping, the square profile to maximise the footprint on the ground, transverse grooves on the shoulders, and ultra high- performance compounds for all conditions of use, provide excellent overall performance.
Despite the growth in this premium retreading sector, Marangoni says it is also well aware of the fact that the market is also made up of lesser quality casings or those which are otherwise fatigued by "previous lives". With this in mind, Marangoni has also expanded its Unitread line with two new tread strip lines characterised by a reduced tread depth in order to minimise stress on the casing. The two new treads are: UZA L and UDY MML.
UZA L has a linear M+S, all position design for general use, with 13.5 mm deep grooves and suitable for 230-240-250 mm casings. UDY MML has a tread designed for the drive axle and is intended for mixed use, with 17.5 mm deep grooves and suitable for 240-250-260 mm casings.
During the show Marangoni also exhibited its most advanced building machine, the RINGBUILDER 3003, a completely automated Ring-application machine that enables the cushion gum to be extruded directly on the casing, skive-craters to be filled, the ring to be applied and properly stitch-rolled, thus, in record time, obtaining a tyre ready for curing. The new RB3003 is intended for large retreaders and is a high- productivity machine, producing up to 300 tyres/8 hr shift, and thanks to some technical improvements over the previous version, the loading and unloading of the tyre is carried out automatically. There are already 20 units with this technology installed worldwide.
Marangoni, of course, has not forgotten the role of smaller retreaders, and for them Marangoni carried out a 3D presentation of the new company’s new Ringbuilder Saturn, aimed at this market.
During the Reifen 2016 exhibition Marangoni placed a heavy focus on emphasising its core business in the retreading sector, but also concentrated heavily on strengthening and further developing the concept of "quality retreads".
According to Marangoni, the current market situation in Europe
is characterised by a dichotomy: the significant presence of low cost Chinese tyres which cannot be retreaded and the simultaneous existence of a large quality market with casings that can be efficiently retreaded in such a way that the resulting tyres are increasingly similar to new ones.
It is precisely because of this
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