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FINLAND
Finnish Euromaster Catches the Wind of Change
mean something more than just his workplace. The company’s retreading business division in Finland originally had been acquired by Euromaster in 1989 within the deal for acquisition of Rengas Steiner group, where Kari Hypponen’s father was one of the originators of the retreading business.
Ari Steiner, the former owner of the company, recalls that those retreading facilities originally had been established back in 1958 by his father, when only hot retreading technologies were available, and it was only in 1970 with the help of Kari Hypponen’s father, who was the technical director and Ari Steiner’s father beforehand, that precure retreading was started.
In 1973 the company started using the Vakuum Vulk system, Ari Steiner reveals. Until this time Rengas Steiner was doing only truck retreads, but soon some off-the-road (OTR) tyres were also added to the production range. By 1979 the Dacapo production system had been invented and was introduced to the production facilities.
Ari Steiner and Kari Hypponen describe this system as the “last true invention in the retreading industry” they are aware of. They explain that it was developed in Sweden, originally designed in
Germany and basically did very well in Finland as the company eventually was able to claim nearly 50 per cent of the country’s market for retreaded OTR tyres primarily thanks to the very favorable price/quality ratio they achieved. The key distinctive feature of the Dacapo system is that the company is doing vulcanisation in rubber moulds, instead of using steel moulds. At the moment, the moulds for OTR tyres are produced in Pori and according to Ari Steiner, in the past they were also used in Sweden, but nowadays this is not the case anymore.
According to Kari Hypponen, the use of the Dacapo system and rubber moulds perfectly matches the company’s needs. One rubber mould can be used for nearly 60-80 cures, which is much lower compared to metal moulds, but the price is also a factor that should be taken into account, as a rubber mould costs Eur 2,000 – 3,000 per unit, while metal moulds cost nearly ten times more.
With the rapid rise in demand for OTR tyres the use of metal moulds can be justified, but this is not something which is expected in the coming years given the current state of demand at the market. At the moment, Kari Hypponen estimates the company’s production
Euromaster is a very well-known company in the European tyre industry. It unites dozens of outlets in 17 members of the European
2017 involved two factories located both in the country’s south, one in Loviisa and one in Pori, but the production facilities were merged in
November 2016, and today only the factory in the city of Pori is operating, according to Kari Hypponen, the head of retreading business division for Finnish Euromaster.
He explained the production line from the shutdown factory was entirely moved to Pori, where large space enables the company to run the entire business under one roof, thus noticeably bringing down the production costs. At the moment, the Pori plant produces nearly 180 truck tyres per day, but the company’s management is ready to do more, if the market demand would let them.
The retreading dynasties
It should be said here that for Kari Hypponen those retreading plants
Kari Hypponen
Union, managing roughly 8 million tyres in total per year, according to the company’s own estimations.
In Finland, Euromaster holds a retreading business that prior to