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BOTSWANA
seeking to garner a major share of the market for tyres in the emerging Botswana tyre market.
The country has a porous port system which encourages the importation of cheap new tyres from the Far East - mainly China, putting the local tyre market under pressure, which has forced local tyre producers out of competition.
“The tyres on our roads in Botswana are
mostly Chinese tyres, but their lifespan isn’t as good as the ones that are retreaded here in Botswana and South Africa.” “Cheap Chinese tyres cannot be retreaded to give maximum mileage. You have to give customers a lot of explanation as to why these Chinese tyres are dangerous for use so they can realise that our retreads are even better than new Chinese tyres.”
Mlambo believes that the discrepancy in durability is enough to convince users to purchase retreads, “A retread can cover more than 60,000
kilometres, while a new Chinese tyre can give you 36,000 kilometres, so these discrepancies are good enough to convince customers of the argument for retreads,” he said.
However, it is illegal to retread passenger tyres in Botswana; the government allows retreading of only commercial tyres and earthmovers, while the ones for the mines are done in South Africa.
So far, Mlambo has experienced progressive growth in his business and projects to expand further in the near future.
soft loan of about 30,000 South African Rand worth of rubber materials due to his existing relationship with it back in Zimbabwe in 1998.
Mlambo’s plan was to collect these materials, use them for his retreads, make sales, pay the loan and get another supply of materials. “That was the idea that helped me improve in my retreading business,” he said.
Mlambo’s output of retreads has improved, but he still believes he is yet to get to where he ought to be. “We are currently managing to retread two sets of 7 tyres a day
whereas my machine can retread up three sets of 7 tyres a day. Although, I was working two days a week then but now, I can work from Monday to Friday, producing 14 tyres a day,” he adds.
In 2009, he began to conduct research to find out how many units of tyres are needed in Botswana on a monthly basis. His discovery, he says was overwhelming.
“I discovered that we need about 2,000 units of tyres and we have only two retreaders operating—the Chinese owned plant and myself. While I retread about 200 units of tyres, Eastern Tyres produces 200 units, which means the remaining 1,600 is sent to
South Africa for retreading and imported to Botswana because it does not have the capacity to retread the 2000 tyres that are required each month.” Obviously, the rising demand for tyres due to the continuously escalating importation of vehicles on Botswana roads, has led to stiff competition across the country from companies