Page 48 - RB-81-17-2

INDIA
therefore, we focus on the truck and bus tyre segment within a 200km radius only,” he said.
OTR tyre retreading is consolidated among 5-6 major players in India, who have the expertise to retread OTR tyres in sizes 24x35 and above. Rising competition due to the dropping prices of new OTR tyres has led to price wars among the major players. “The drop in OTR prices would further put pressure on our margins. The domestic tyre makers are forced to cut down their prices due to the imports of cheaper OTR tyres from China,” he stated.
Waidhan Engineering started in 1987, diversified into many other mining activities and has spread to almost all parts of India. The group is now into the manufacturing of conveyor belts, conveyor belt splicing and repairs, HT/LT motor rewinding, mechanical spares manufacturing and repairs for industries such as mining, construction, power, cement etc. The company is also selling Chinese branded OTR tyres in the Indian market.
companies may have been growing, but in terms of value, business has been coming down. The scenario has prompted us to expand into truck and bus tyre retreading,” he explained. CIO retreaded around 1,000 OTR tyres and 4,000 truck and bus tyres in 2016.
CIO also produces 40 tonnes of hot rubber at its Jamshedpur plant. Now the company also plans to
start pre-cure tread rubber production by the middle of 2017. “We will continue to source pre- cure tread rubber from Eastern in the future also,” he said. The company has plans to hike its hot rubber capacity to sell in the open market post implementation of GST in 2017.
JK Tyre Launches Karur Workshop
India’s JK Tyre Industries Limited, a pioneer of radial technology in India, recently launched its state-of-the-art 'JK Truck Wheels Centre' and 'JK Retread Centre' at Attur in the Karur district of Tamil Nadu. This is JK Tyre’s 30th Truck Wheels showroom, and 12th retread centre in the country. The opening of the new facilities was in line with the company's plans to expand its network across India.
The centre is well equipped and is technically advanced to provide total solutions to all tyre and wheel related needs of trucks and buses, according to the company.
Strategically located on the Karur-Erode highway, the new showroom is equipped with
best-in-class wheel aligner, automatic tyre changers, greasing pumps, and pneumatic tools set, and latest retreading and repairing infrastructure to ensure end-to-end truck and bus tyre care.
Mr. AK Badhwar, General Manager, Retread Business, JK Tyres, inaugurated the centre and said "Karur is one of the oldest towns and about 370km south west of Chennai and is well connected to Coimbatore, Chennai, Madurai, Kochi, Pondy, Salem, Bangalore, and hence we believe the centre will be a success."
"This Centre underlines JK Tyre's efforts to provide total tyre solution to this large customer base'', he said.
CIO Starts Truck and Bus Retreading by Pre-cure System
The slowdown in the Indian mining sector over the last few years has led to retreading companies specialising in the OTR sector foraying into the truck and bus tyre retreading. India’s largest OTR retreader CIO Tyres Pvt Ltd, based in Jamshedpur, began retreading truck and bus tyres with effect from the beginning of last year. “We started truck and bus retreading in Januar y 2016 and partnered with Eastern Tread,” said K Muralidharan, CEO, CIO Tyres Pvt Ltd in Mumbai recently. We now retread around 300 tyres per month,” he added. CIO says it has received an encouraging response from its clientele, as the company’s
including 50/80-57, the largest OTR being used in India. Its OTR plant has been fitted with in-house fabricated equipment. “We installed the required machiner y for retreading the largest size 50/80-57 OTR tyre by hot process three months ago and are looking forward to getting the first of this size tyre soon as the bigger sized tyres are not easy to get,” he said. The plant regularly retreads size 36x51 OTR. CIO retreads around 150 OTR tyres each month.
Until recently large size OTR tyres were being imported and even now some of the larger sizes are imported. When the tyres were
K Muralidharan, CEO, CIO Tyres Pvt Ltd
pre-cured truck retread gives mileage of 65,000 km. CIO orders on average 5 tonnes of precure tread from Eastern each month. The company has installed a semi- automatic plant with one 10 tyre autoclave, supplied by Coimbatore based Rajmahal.
Founded in 1952, CIO indigenously developed and manufactured moulds and machinery for retreading large size OTR tyres,
worn, they were being replaced by fresh sets of imported tyres since there were no retread plants in India for renewing the life of big size tyres.
But over the years, Indian and Chinese OTR brands have made an entry into the market and OTR tyre retreading has become highly competitive. “OTR retreaders are forced to compete with each other on price as volume-wise the
The Indian Retreading Association will likely be a registered entity by the end of May. The process of registration was delayed by two months as the association registration was applied in a category that is not applicable for the representative body. “A fresh application has been filed in the NGO (non-government organisation) categor y and registration will likely to be through by the end of May,” informed Karun Sanghi, the driving force behind forming the association.
In its first move the retreading association has already made representation to the GST council for fixing GST rates for the retreading business. “There are several state level retreading associations that have made
representation to the GST council and we are also in touch with few of them,” he said.
When asked if there is any plan to co-operate or even merge the state level associations with the upcoming national body. He said, “We may not merge with them but we will surely form a mechanism to work closely with them.”
The association, which is still on paper, has yet to embark on any membership drive till it gets registered. “Let the association register first and we will call a meeting again in the first week of July to discuss all the issues,” he clarified.
Indian Retreading Association to Registered by May End
48 Retreading Business