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COMPANY NEWS
other ways to increase retread sales
An example of this is the company’s current arrangement with Continental. All Continental’s casings come into the site at Aspe. Some go to Conti’s retread plant in Stöcken, Germany, whilst others are used to manufacture ContiTread precure retreads. According to Grupo Soledad’s International Commercial Director Salvador Pérez Lucena, Insa Turbo will be looking to double the production of Contitread retreads in 2020. The second major business operating out of the Aspe site is the Group’s casing and used tyre operation, BuyCasings, which sorts retreadable casings for Insa Turbo’s own plant and other retreaders, as well as used tyres for key overseas markets such as the USA.
The company currently has 40 employees sorting tyres at the Aspe site, but according to Salvador Perez, one of the Group’s key priorities is now to significantly improve the efficiency of the process.
“We are currently working with
IDS in the area of robotics to automise the collecting, sorting and inspection of the tyres that come into the site,” said Perez. “Automising this process will take maybe three years, but our aim is to create the most modern layout for a tyre sorting facility in the tyre industry. We ultimately want to sort 14,000 tyres a day automatically.”
The third key business located at Aspe is a granulation facility, which granulates truck tyres into a range of products marketed under the brand name Solodegoma. Car tyres are processed into TDF at six additional facilities located elsewhere in Spain. The Solodegoma range includes rubber granules resins, EPDM and encapsulated SBR for export to key markets such as the Caribbean, the USA and North Africa. The company’s 0.5mm to 2.5mm granulate is certified by Labosport for sports surfaces. Away from the Aspe site, Grupo Soledad also operates two rubber compounding companies Caucho Industrial Verdú and Mezclas Caucho. Verdú, acquired in 2011
specialises in rubber compounds for civil engineering applications, such as elastomeric bearings and joints for bridges and tunnels, whilst 90% of Mezclas Caucho’s business is focused on retreading compounds, although the company also produces technical compounds and compounds for the shoe manufacturing industr y. Nearly half of the retread compound is consumed by Insa Turbo, but the company also sells to a number of key retreader partners around Europe such as UBO, Fedima, Mesas and Bolcase. The company also develops Alphatread compound for Hankook, has a co-operation to produce tread rubber for Vipal, and has carried out a project with the EU regarding sidewall resistance on bus tyres. Mezclas Cauch currently produces 16,000 tonnes of compound per annum and has invested 3 million Euros over the last three years in equipment (including a new Banbury) and in a new laborator y. According to Salvador Perez Lucena, the current priorities of Mezclas Caucho are to optimise
efficiencies in the plant as well as to expand business in the shoe and technical compound sectors. Last but not least, Grupo Soledad’s most recent acquisition, finalised at the start of 2019, is the Malaga based engineering company, Tallants Navarro, which produces blades and spares as well as engineering services, and which offers the Group the potential to expand into the recycling machiner y sector. According to Perez, the current priority is to consolidate the new acquisition before expanding into overseas markets during 2020.