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CHILE
Truck Center to Incorporate Retreading Plant in Circular Economy Concept
collection and tyre recycling into a consolidated and sustainable tyre business based on the circular economy.
Tyre servicing, of course lies at the centre of the company’s business, and managing the tyre requirements of the large fleet of trucks which transport aggregate from the Santa Laura mine is naturally one of Truck Center’s main activities. Indeed, Santa Laura is Truck Center’s largest client for its truck retreads, but the operation has also built up a strong base of other clients among logistics companies servicing the mining sector, including the likes of Las Coscojas, Interandino, Transportes Labbé and Transandino.
In addition, Truck Center has built up a strong clientele in the bus sector, supplying key bus companies in Chile such as Andesmar and
however, the company has two additional activities, which form an integral part of the company’s circular economy strategy. Firstly the company is authorized to collect and store scrap tyres, so in additional to carrying out major and minor repairs, the company also collects tyres on behalf of tyre distribution clients and is also able to carry out the first stage of the valorisation process (i.e. primary shredding).
In addition, the Sant Laura Group also owns a further subsidiary company called Ecorubber, which recycles rubber waste, turning it into protective rubber surfaces, rubber flooring and other associated products.
Because of this the company is in the process of a significant construction project at the San Bernardo site, which will house the Ecorubber
The idea of incorporating a tyre retreading plant as a sustainable business unit within an industrial circular economy concept is growing in popularity and can be viewed as an important opportunity for the
treads, to truck and bus companies in the central area of Chile.
The company, however, forms part of the much larger Santa Laura Group, which specialises in the extraction and transport of aggregate, and
retreading sector worldwide. In the last issue of Retreading Business, we explained how Spain-based Grupo Soledad had transformed it’s Insa Turbo retreading business into a sustainable business based on the circular economy. In this issue we focus on another example from the Chilean market.
Truck Center is a commercial tyre retreader based in the industrial area of San Bernardo, not far from Santiago. With more than twenty years’ experience manufacturing truck and bus retreads, the company, which manufactures between 800- 1,000 tyres per month, considers itself to be a small to medium sized retreader, selling its tyres, manufactured using Vipal and Daeho
which operates a large open cast mine on the same industrial estate as the Truck Center retreading plant in addition to a construction company and a concrete factory (Santa Laura Hormigones) amongst other interests.
We were shown round the Santa Laura mine and the Truck Center retread plant by Truck Center’s Director, Juan Andres Cristi, Commercial and Operations Manager Pedro Veguer and Commercial Assistant Martin Poblete and found a company that was more than just a simple tyre supplier, but one which was undergoing an investment programme that would integrate retread manufacture, new tyre sales and service, used tyre
30 Retreading Business
Camden.
“Over the last two years, the price of Chinese tyres has made things very hard, and we are in a constant fight with the new Chinese tyre brands,” says Juan Andres Cristi. “However, over the same period, our clientele has improved, and we have now a base of around 80 customers. In the last few months we have gained several big clients in the south of the country including Oro Verde and Mimbral. We have two salesmen developing the market in that part of the country, and because of the need to service these clients, we are now looking into the viability of establishing a Truck Center site in that region.”
In addition to tyre sales and service,
manufacturing facilities, as well as casing storage. The company is also investing in a granulator and wire extractor, which will allow the company to close the loop in its circular economy vision.
Says Cristi; “We are currently in the middle of a restructuring and construction process which will take around four months. The new machines will be here in October/November and will be installed thereafter. Our concept is to locate all the recycling activities together on the one site and we expect this to be fully operational by 2022.”