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THAILAND
Goodtire Considering Retread Foray in South East Asia
“We have plans to export tread in the ASEAN market in the near future,” explained Ratanareekul. Tread rubber exports are likely to be aligned with the proposed retread foray in adjoining countries in the future.
The hot cure facility started 30
years ago in the late eighties and forayed into precure retreading 14 years ago. The precure plant functions on couple of 22-tyre autoclaves sourced from Newera and Italmatic, while the hot cure plant is installed with electric and steam moulds.
Domestic retread volumes are stagnant with some of the major retread companies in Thailand. Therefore, they are looking for growth beyond Thailand in adjoining markets. There are couple of markets that are opening up like neighbouring Myanmar in South East Asia and landlocked Laos. “We are looking at Myanmar and Laos as
With the entry of low-priced tyre imports, the production has gone down by 1,000 tyres. “Currently, we maintain an average of 7,000 retreads each month, whereas, we used to retread about 8,000 tyres ever y month about five years ago,” stated Ratanareekul.
Commenting on the market, he said, “Tubeless radials have become popular in the last five
Kitkarnyang Continue
to Grow in Price-Sensitive Retread Segment
Passakorn Ratanareekul, General Manager, Goodtire Retreading Co Ltd.
One of the largest retreaders in Thailand, Kitkarnyang, is continuing to drive volumes in the Thai market. Regarded as the leader in the competitive pricing sector, the company retreads over 9,000 tyres each month. “We have among the
houses the conventional hot cure, precure and tread line production. On how it holds an edge in pricing, he stated, “We have good sources to procure raw material locally as well as in the overseas market that gives us an edge in keeping control over
Yap Kong Hui, Consultant with Suppakit Jitmart, Managing Director, Kitkarnyang Chonburi Co Ltd.
interesting markets to enter in the near future by setting-up fully- fledged retread operations,” confided Passakorn Ratanareekul, General Manager, Goodtire Retreading Co Ltd.
The foray is still at an early stage and modalities are yet to be worked out, but Ratanareekul assured, “Both markets are opening-up and present an opportunity with either entering on our own or with a suitable local partner.”
Established almost three decades ago at Nakhon Pathom, the retreader and compound producer has two separate facilities for precure retreading and conventional retreading along with tread line production. “We retread with the precure process at Goodtire, while the older hot cure plant operating under the title Romsai Retread Pvt Ltd also houses tread rubber production,” he said. Both plants are located in close vicinity about 5 km away from each other.
The company has a larger hot cure operation, retreading about 4,000 tyres each month including truck, light truck and OTR tyres, while the precure plant has monthly volumes of about 3,000 tyres.
years impacting the hot cure volumes. But the conventional process still has a huge base due to the considerable presence of bias tyres.”
On plans to recover the lost ground, Ratanareekul added, “We have been maintaining similar volumes over the last couple of years and hope to recover the lost ground depending on market recovery in the future.”
With the retread market sluggish and taking time to recover, the focus has now shifted towards the distribution of new tyres. The company is a sole agent for brands like Toyo, Giti and Kumho as well as several Chinese brands. “Our focus is on maintaining the retread volumes besides as well as distribution. We are known for marketing good tyre brands, good retreads etc.,” he emphasised. The Romsai plant produces 50-60 tons of tread liner each month. It manufactures precure tread and camelback for its own operations besides selling in the Thai market. The plant also manufactures customised compound for the domestic market.
Meanwhile, the company says it is also considering to develop its tread rubber exports business.
lowest retread prices in the market as our focus remains on volume,” admits Yap Kong Hui, Consultant with Kitkarnyang Chonburi Co Ltd. But competitive pricing does not necessarily mean prices are always low, as the company has recently revised its prices due to increasing input costs. “We have increased prices by 8 per cent and still people are coming back to us, indicating customers have faith in our products and quality,” he says.
Thai retreaders are highly self-reliant as most of the bigger retread operations have completed backward integration and are engaged in hot as well as precure retreading besides producing tread liners and operating mixing facilities to support their retread operations. This reduces dependency on sourcing from outside and provides better control over pricing. The cheaper workforce from neighbouring Laos also plays a role in the company’s competitive pricing.
Chonburi based Kitkarnyang’s facility
pricing.”
The Kitkarnyang plant has an installed capacity of 12,000 tyres split equally between hot and precured retread. “We retread about 5,200 tyres each month by the precure process and 4,000 by the hot process, besides having the capacity to produce 50 tons of tread rubber.” Tread rubber production, however, is pegged at around 42 tons each month.
The company entered into retreading in 2002 with the conventional process and precure five years later in 2007. The precure process operates on four autoclaves of 12, 14, 22 and 24 respectively. The smaller chambers are from Newera and larger ones from Ferlex. The company consumes almost 90 per cent of its tread rubber production and supplies the rest to the domestic market.
As part of its expansion plans, a new Banbury mixer is under installation and likely to be operational by May- June this year. “Post Banbury
34 Retreading Business