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BELARUS
Belarus Retreader Mulls
Expansion Despite Tough
Vladimir Busko from retreader Olga Brest
Competition
Olga Brest, one of the three retreaders in Belarus, is considering launching a new line to work with tyres for specialised machinery, according to the company’s director, Vladimir Busko. The company has been retreading truck tyres for more than two decades, so it knows the market and currently is open to new opportunities.
The company is currently retreading 10,000 truck tyres per year on European equipment from Collman, Matteuzzi, Conrad and Engelke, serving the needs of the transport companies in Brest Oblast and partly in Minsk Oblast in Belarus, Busko informed.
Olga Brest was originally established in 1993 as a transport company working on the transport routes linking Europe with the post-Soviet space. The idea to retread tyres came later, when the management had discovered the shortage of some truck tyres in the domestic market. Since the time it was launched, the company has seen two cycles of modernisation, in 2004 and 2011 respectively.
“We purchased the equipment to retread tyres in 1995 and launched a line in 1996, starting with the retreading of only four tyres per day. The first tyres we used were on our own trucks,”Busko recalled.
At the moment, Olga Brest is working with the entire range of truck tyre sizes from R17.5 to
R21.5. The most popular sizes, like 385/65 R22.5, 385/55 R22.5, 315/80 R22.5, 315/70 R22.5 and others, are always available for sale, according to Busko.
While the shortage of truck tyres in Belarus is long gone, Belarus retreaders have to deal with tough competition on the domestic market, primarily with truck tyres imported from Russia and China. This is one of the factors that is pushing Olga Brest to look at new segments.
Only imported casings
With no shortage for truck tyres, Belarus, however, has an acute shortage of good casings. There are numerous reasons for this.
“One of the problems is that tyres from Russia, China or Belarus usually are non-reusable, although the casings of some particular brands still can be retreaded,” Busko said. This is why the company has to import casings. Busko revealed that Olga Brest is ordering them from the Netherlands and Germany. Basically, the company is by 80 per cent operating on its own casings and by
20 per cent on the casings of its clients.
“Our clients are the transport companies. At our plant they can get their tyres retreaded within 24 hours, with whatever tread pattern they like. In some cases, when
the request is urgent, we can also offer a client to change his casing to our retreaded tyre,” Busko added.
Competition is fierce
In general, the competition in the tyre market of Belarus is tough. The
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