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INDIA
difficult to operate as a single brand franchisee.
Haryana Cold Retread is one of the biggest retreaders in Northern India, retreading about 1,500 TBR and LCV tyres per month with a client base among the state-owned transport companies like Haryana Transport
Undertaking (HTU) and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) besides logistic companies like GATI, TCI etc. It procures 14-15 tons of tread rubber from Indag each month.
“Indag’s radial patterns under the Zoma series are a good product, that performs well in Indian conditions, logging even more than 100,000 km,” claimed Prateek Yadav, Director, Haryana Cold Retread.
As a major client in Northern India, Haryana Cold Retread believes that Indag brought out a good product range under Zoma brand but since it
is now a player in the open market, the product fights with price variations and availability at different price points. “Indag has to rev-up its marketing policy to keep a check on price variations as otherwise sometimes even good products can be beaten by bad pricing,” he thinks. The retreader believes that they have a proper retreading process in place and with a quality product could do wonders with it, whereas, if it is given to smaller unorganised players too, they may not have the required expertise to apply the product and its ends up getting poor publicity in a highly competitive market. Haryana Cold Retread is also among the first retreaders in Northern India to set-up a separate dedicated Recamic facility from Michelin. The second state-of-the-art retread unit has operated at a separate location nearby since 2014.
Our volume at the Michelin plant is about 250-300 tyres per month, and volumes have been static for quite some time. It’s an expensive product considering the Indian market, but it has created a space for itself despite high price levels compared to Indian systems,” Prateek stated.
According to Prateek, “Michelin is a good product and performs well but is high-priced. Unless Michelin start producing tread in India and at price levels that suit Indian preferences, the volumes will remain low.”
process-monorail system, he said, “It is a very organised system in which the tyre does not come in contact with ground right from when it enters the plant till it undergoes the whole retreading process and leaves the plant.”
The plant will be installed with a new range of equipment customised for the government-run transport firm. “We have specifically designed the new machines as per specifications provided by the CTU; for example, tread feed with automatic cutter to bring automation in cutting tread. Currently, it is done manually in most of the Indian retread plants,” he explained. Gemini is also working on an envelope expander and the necessary R&D work is going on. The plant will operate on a 7-tyre Gemini autoclave, to retread 21 bus tyres in one shift.
Among the new range is the installation of a Rimming Station, which places the curing rim easily on the tyre to avoid manually loading
the casing. The new system is all done at the press of a button. Besides the domestic market, Africa remains one of the key markets for the Indian equipment supplier. “We shipped one complete plant for a client based at the port city of Mombasa in Kenya in May, and a few more projects are in the pipeline to be delivered later this year.” Gemini supplied 10 sets of complete plants besides separate plant equipment last year in a mix of Indian and international markets. “We are expecting to supply 12-13 plants in 2018 in domestic and foreign clients,” Viginesh said. Meanwhile it has introduced a 14/25 tyre size buffer, builder and electric chamber to cure tyres up to 63 inches. “Earlier, we offered retread machinery up to 12/24 tyre size, but now we have extended the range further up to 14/25 by the precure process. Normally, the bigger 14/25 size is retreaded by the conventional process in the domestic market.”
Prateek Yadav, Director, Haryana Cold Retread
Coimbatore based retreading plant machinery manufacturer Gemini, is supplying retread plant to a world bank financed project in Chandigarh. The all new retread plant is being sourced by the state- owned bus fleet operator Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU). The plant will be set-up inside the compound of the fleet operator in the North Indian states of Punjab and Haryanas’ joint capital Chandigarh, located around 250 Kms from Delhi.
World Bank finance government
owned corporations or agencies to invest in new technology and plant upgrades from time to time and the CTU project is under the same category.
“We are supplying a complete process monorail plant to CTU. It should start functioning in the next couple of months,” informed Viginesh Makesh, Director, Gemini Machine Works Pvt Ltd. Gemini supplied a plant to the CTU about 15 years ago, which the transport firm still operates, and the upcoming plant is the second plant to be
installed in the CTU premises.
On when the plant is expected to be commissioned, “The machinery will arrive at the plant in early July, with installation work being carried out through July, the operation should commence in the first week of August.” Explaining the highlights of the
the domestic retreading industry. Moreover, retreading volumes are also improving due to government implementing stricter penalties on over-loading as high as 150 per cent over the total load. “Earlier, trucks were often overloaded to double the carrying capacity, but now the authorities are curbing overloading with higher penalties,” he said. Indag exports just 8-10 per cent of its total production and believes that the overseas market may not improve much in the near future. “We are keen to improve exports also, but the focus remains on the
Indag to Operate Nalagarh Plant to Capacity
One of India’s biggest tread rubber manufactures, Indag, hopes the retread market will move positively due to increasing radialisation and the imposition of anti-
dumping duty on the
imports of Chinese tyres.
The Delhi headquartered
tread maker has a
manufacturing facility
based at Nalagarh in
Himachal Pradesh with
an installed capacity of
1,800 tons per month.
“Although the installed
capacity is much higher
the plant produces
around 1,100 – 1,200
tons each month.
However, we hope to
operate the plant to
optimum capacity by the
end of ongoing fiscal,”
said Ravi Bhalla, Business
Head (State Transport Undertakings (STU) Sales), Indag Rubber Limited. When asked on how Indag plans to operate to full capacity, Bhalla explained, “The opportunities are expanding with the increasing share of radial tyres in the country, which opens up the market and offers more customers to tap into. Moreover, the advantage is with us as the anti- dumping duty on Chinese tyre imports restricts the market entry of low-priced tyres from across the border, improving the share of good casings for the retreading industry.” The company observed that the
retreading market is increasing in the country though it is difficult to quantify in volumes and termed the anti-dumping duty as a ‘lifeline’ for
Ravi Bhalla, Business Head (STU Sales), Indag Rubber Limited
Gemini to Supply Plant to CTU Financed by World Bank
Viginesh Makesh, Director, Gemini Machine Works Pvt Ltd
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