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ARC
MRPMA Vice President Lim Sum Teck
Suntex’s Chin Hon Meng
MRPMA Calls for Greater Recognition for the Retreading Industry
TRMAM Points out Opportunities in Retread Sector Despite Challenge Posed by Budget New Tyres
During his presentation on the challenges facing the Malaysian retreading industry, Chin Hon Meng from Suntex, representing TRMAM, pointed out that Malaysian retread consumption was set to fall from 2.47 million units in 2012 to a projected 1.45 million in 2016. Over the same four-year period Chinese new tyre imports have risen by 285 per cent.
Chin, however, pointed out the downward pricing pressure caused by cheap imports was not the only
implement ECE108 and 109 in Malaysia.
Despite the undoubted challenge posed by these issues Chin pointed out a number of key opportunities including a general trend towards sustainability development, the potential savings available by using Ekoprena, the opportunity to make fleets more aware of the fuel and other savings that can be made by using retreads, the benefits of improved inspection technology, improved cost per km through more
The keynote presentation at the Asian Retread Conference was given by MRPMA Vice President Lim Sum Teck, who gave a passionate call for greater recognition for the retreading sector and lamented the way retreading is often sidelined. “Sometimes you wonder whether retreading has been considered at all,” he commented.
Lim began his presentation by talking about commodity codings and the fact that retreads are not included in published statistics. The contribution of the retreading industry should be included, he argued. In 2015 the Malaysian retread sector accounted for some 200 million ringgit in value.
Lim outlined some of the work carried out by MRPMA to promote the retreading industry including the establishment of a retread compounds sector in 2013, the work with the MRB in promoting
Ekoprena, and an MOU with TRMAM to jointly promote retreads. The Association is also working with the Export Council to include retreading compounds as an export item.
“I believe retreads have the potential to grow and the industry should not be sidelined,” he said. “One of the biggest challenges is the dumping of cheap tyres in our market and we must make sure that all new tyres meet Malaysian Standards,” he added.
In making his call for a more prominent position for the retreading industry Lim was under no illusion as to how difficult it would be.
“We need to dispel the low quality image of retreading,” he concluded, “but the biggest challenge will be to make sure that all the proper information is made available.”
challenge faced by Malaysian retreaders. Chin referred to escalating labour costs caused by an increase in the foreign workers levy and an increase in the minimum wage from RM 900 to RM 1000. He also pointed out that utility costs had risen, as had equipment costs due to the depreciating ringgit and referred to the difficulties caused by manpower shortages and the challenge posed by the need to
advanced compound technology, the potential for savings and improved sustainability by installing solar and renewable energy, and the potential benefits that could be accrued by improving the education of fleet operators. Chin also pointed out that the Malaysian Government was also trying to work out some measures to protect against the dumping of very cheap tyres into the Malaysian market.
26 Retreading Business
Sudarsan Outlines
Methods for Cost Reduction in Retread Plants
One of the most practical and useful presentations during the Asian Retread Conference was made by Sudarsan Varadaraj, the Chairman and Managing Director of Elgi Rubber, who talked about how to achieve effective cost reduction in retread plants. The key message of his presentation was that retreading is still
profitable and will continue to be so, but that it is necessary to improve profitability by looking closer at reducing unnecessary costs in the retread plant Sudarsan argued that reducing variable costs rather than fixed costs is the key – in other words maximising the number of tyres produced per man hour worked.
