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BULGARIA
and the Black Sea coast and is taking advantage from its geographical location, since there are a lot of trucks in this region of the country, according to Svytoslav Boyanov, the director of SP-Trading.
The company was established back in 2002, and prior to opening a retreading line it was operating in the transport business. SP-Trading is also a major tyre distributor. It imports new tyres of the Firestone and Bridgestone brands, plus Russian
tyres under the Kama brand, and some particular brands from China. In total, the company imports around 10,000 tyres per year.
In terms of retreading, in 2017 the company released 3,000 tyres, and that was merely a third of the total designed production performance.
At the same time, SP-Trading is operating slightly better than the other companies in the market, since it has its own niche, in the segment of the truck tyres with
rare sizes.
“In general, the price difference between a new Chinese tyre and a new retreaded tyre is around 30 euros, and it is not easy to stand in a competitive fight amid these conditions,” Boyanov said.
“Most truck companies prefer to purchase a new Chinese tyre and it is very unlikely that they will change their minds in the foreseeable future,” he added.
In the rare tyres segment, the situation in general was slightly better than in the rest of the market, since the competition, including with Chinese tyres, was not so strong there, Boyanov said. SP-Trading is importing 70 per cent of its casings from the European market, and taking the remaining 30 per cent from Bulgaria, primarily retreading the casings of its clients.
Since SP-Trading is importing the Kama brand into Bulgaria, it is quite possible that the company will start retreading Russian tyres for its customers in the future. Boyanov explained that SP-Trading tested retreading Kama tyres and obtained products with an appropriate quality as a result. SP-Trading is primarily using raw
materials from Avon and Kraiburg, purchasing them through its alliance with Omnifak and several other Bulgarian retreaders, according to Boyanov.
“There are not a lot of opportunities for retreaders in Bulgaria these days, so speaking about the future, it could be safely said that this is not the best time to expand a retreading business,” Boyanov admitted.
Bigs tries to retread Chinese tyres
Another retreader from the Black Sea coast – Bigs - was able to stay afloat due to importing Chinese tyres, primarily under the Double Road and Keter Tire brands. As estimated by Georgy Slavchev, the manager of Bigs, the company released 2,000 retreaded tyres in 2017, as compared to the 3,000 to 3,500 tyres on average that it was releasing during the previous years.
“At the moment, we are retreading tyres only on the casings of our clients. In future, it is possible that we would start purchasing casings for further retreading. It will depend on what
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