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CHILE
Neumaservicio Targets Growth in Mining Sector
Antofagasta in Northern Chile, with an annual rainfall of just 1.7 mm, can justifiably claim status as the world’s driest city. It is a place of extreme aridity where nothing grows without artificial help. However, the city also has the highest GDP per capita in Chile, and that is due to the fact that the city is also the centre of the Chilean mining sector. Indeed, the whole place revolves around the copper mines located
represented a promising investment, he set up a plant to service the fast- growing mining industry in the region.
Between 1991-97 Acosta’s business, based on both truck and OTR retreading as well as OTR tyre repairs, grew rapidly, not least due to the fact that he also became the Michelin distributor and managed to gain a warranty from Michelin for the repair of OTR tyres, so
rubber from the Indian manufacturer Midas, as well as selling a range of new tyres including Michelin, Pirelli and a Chinese brand. The Iquique plant manufactures a further 9,000 tyres per year.
Neumaservicio’s main client base consists of logistics companies travelling to and from the mines to the port area. In total the company services as many as 16 clients accounting for 150 trucks. At the moment, however, Neumaservicio does not have a customer base within the mining companies themselves. This is a sore point for Acosta, who has made it his quest to acquire some of this business for the retreading sector.
“We could certainly do more business with the mines,” he says, “but we continue to have difficulties with the decision makers in the mining sector as they
have not traditionally
believed in the safety
of retreads. However,
we have been able to
hold out some hope
in recent times due
to the growth in
importance of
environmental
issues.
“We had a meeting
with Codelco and
the Government
recently,” he
continues, “meeting
both with their safety
managers and their
clients. We are
putting in a lot of
effort, but it’s hard
work getting the
mines to make a
decision. A key need
has been to educate
the client with
regards to the
retreading process as
well as with regards to the Chilean Standard. Our aim is to present the retreading process to them in a way which gives them the confidence to use our tyres without risk. To get into this market is one of our key aims.”
With Neumaservicio’s Antofagasta and Iquique plants both having the capacity to double production, Acosta is aware that this is a big challenge, but he has a clear vision of how to achieve this aim of increasing the acceptance levels of retreading in the replacement tyre market, an aim which he shares in his role as President of ARNEC.
“There have been two key problems facing retreaders in Chile – the first of these is the constant fight with Chinese tyre manufacturers in a scenario where the main suppliers to industry have to sell at a high price
in market where there are no restrictions. The second problem has been the low quality of product sold by some retreaders. Historically there was no Standard in Chile, so there was a big difference in quality.”
With this in mind, the development of the S334 retreading standard has been of key importance in helping quality retreaders benchmark their products and will become a vital part in the attempt to penetrate the mining sector, not least because the mining companies insist on high levels of maintenance and safety. According to Acosta, Neumaservicio was the first company in Chile to certify both plants to the new Standard. “This is in part thanks to Michelin,” he argues, “as the Michelin Standard is actually higher than the new Chilean Standard.”
In addition, Acosta emphasises the
nearby, with around half the city’s population of 400,000 consisting of intinerant workers serving the mines. Much of the retreading in the Antofagasta region is carried out by the three OTR retreaders, Kal Tire, Bailac and Renova, but the largest retread operator in the truck sector is the Recamic dealer, Neumaservicio, which operates plants in both Antofagasta and Iquique, and which is owned by Eduardo Acosta, who also happens to be the current President of ARNEC, the Chilean Retreaders Association.
Acosta has a long association with the retreading industry having first established a retread plant in the city as far back as 1991, when with little knowledge of the retreading sector other than a hunch that the industry
successful, in fact, that he was able to sell the whole business to Kal Tire in 1998.
Acosta then moved to Iquique in 1999 and set up a new plant, which also became a Recamic dealer in 2001. In 2006, the new company, Neumaservicio, opened a second plant in Antofagasta, which also became a Recamic dealer. In 2016, thanks to progressive growth, the company also began to manufacture using Michelin’s Refill process (which restricts casing usage to Michelin casings only).
The company’s Antofagasta plant currently manufactures around 12,000 retreads per annum, 95% of which are Michelin retreads. The company also produces a small quantity of retreads using tread
need to push the circular economy benefits of retreading, due to the fact that in an open market like Chile, there will be little chance of the imposition of tariffs as have been imposed in other parts of the world. “We need to develop a conscience with regards to the Circular Economy,” he says.
One further area, which Eduardo Acosta has been focusing heavily on is the need to get involved much more closely with fleet customers. “Our main strategy is aimed at clients who demand quality combined with a low cost per kilometre. With that in mind, we have been focusing on showing clients the benefits of the tyres and to increase their knowledge in order to help them improve their fleets.” In line with this strategy Neumaservicio has established a new
22 Retreading Business