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SRI LANKA
Vavuniya Tyre Dealer to Foray into Retreading
One of the most prominent tyre dealer in the Northern province is planning a foray into the retreading industry. Vavuniya
based T Kuruparan Tyre Mart has a flourishing tyre business spread over the whole Northern Province with two tyre marts
each in Vavuniya and Kilinochchi.
The multi-brand new tyre distributor has a vacant plot in the centre of Vavuniya and is planning to set-up a retreading plant on it in the next couple of months. “We are receiving more than 500 tyres for retreading at our tyre shops without much effort, which we get retreaded by various retreaders. If we have our own retread plant, those could be retreaded by us,” said T Kuruparan.
Interestingly, there is hardly any retreading plant from Anuradhapura onwards to up Jaffna in the North. The tyre dealer believes that this could be a good opportunity to foray into the retreading
sector to tap the market instead of outsourcing the retreading services.
The company is looking for suitable plant machinery, which it would most likely import from India as most of the plants in Sri Lanka are supplied by various Indian equipment makers. “We are in touch with few retread plant makers in India and in the middle of finalising the equipment,” he said.
On when the plant would be operational, he said; “We will soon start building the structure and the plant will most likely to be operational by April this year.”
New Victory Retreads to Order Plant Machinery in 2018
With the domestic retread market in slowdown mode, Sri Lankan retreaders are focusing on improving efficiencies and investing in new equipment. New Victory Retread based at Mawanella in Central Province about 70 km from Capital Colombo is planning to buy new plant machinery. “We have plans to buy an envelope expander and tyre inspection machinery next year from India,” informed Mahinda Wijayasiri of New Victory Retreads.
Explaining reasons of buying new equipment, he said, “Our focus is on introducing new technology in the plant to improve production standards.” The precure plant, which started in 2012, has the capacity to retread 1,000 light and heavy truck tyres each month but is currently operating at half capacity and retreading in between 400-500 tyres. The company sources MRF tread locally from the Indian company’s plant in