Page 22 - RB97

MOLDOVA
Moldova’s Last Man Standing
explained by Gulea, at that time, these tyres filled all parking lots, automotive yards, and "they were virtually everywhere."
"Casings are classified as waste and cannot be imported along with crumb rubber. The possibility of importing casings exclusively by tyre retreaders was raised at the ministries level, but the appeal was dismissed. We will continue to push with this issue, but only when the political class in Moldova changes at the end of this year," he said.
Every casing undergoes a throughout inspection, as the company provides its clients with a guarantee that the tread will not peel off before it is completely worn out.
"For this reason, we are not retreading all brands. The lion's share of our casings belongs to the Kama brand, as its share of imports to Moldova is about 30%. It is followed by other brands, including Giti, Matador, Kelly, Westlake, Otani, Jinyu, and Sailun. We retread very few premium carcasses, like Michelin, Bridgestone, and
Goodyear, because they are imported to Moldova in minimal quantities. We do not retread casings of the cheap Asian segment,” he added. Kama tyres are pretty popular in Moldova. According to Gulea, to some extent, this could be associated with historical roots as Moldova was a part of the USSR, and thanks to some sort of nostalgia, Kama tyres are more trusted than other tyres of the same segment.
"We believe that Kama is a really good casing that can be retreaded even a second time," he said. According to Gulea, the company
guarantee of a product quality," Gulea said.
"As soon as the tyre is retreaded, its appearance is almost indistinguishable from the new tyre thanks to a special proprietary technology for treating the shoulder side zones. And all these thanks to the equipment and skills of our staff," Gulea said.
"The company constantly monitors innovations in the field of raw materials for retreading and cooperates with the world's best manufacturers, including Kraiburg and Vipal, and at the moment there are also offers from Turkish manufacturers that deserve attention," he added.
Tehnoprofil also puts a lot of effort into keeping up with innovations in the retreading industry. As explained by Gulya in 2020, the company introduced special software, with the help of which it has automated the workflow of order execution.
"By visiting our website, customers can monitor the status of their orders, as well as automatically receive SMS messages about the readiness of orders, etc. Due to this, the order fulfillment process has increased by an average of 20%," he said.
In the years to come, Tehnoprofil may also expand its business by venturing into the tyre recycling sector, says Gulea. "At the moment, we are working on the launch of the production of rubber coatings from our rubber crumb. We are also actively looking for manufacturers of equipment for processing tyres into crumb," he said.
According to Gulea, every retreader
During the past few years, Tehnoprofil has been Moldova's largest retreading plant. Now it is the last one operating, according to Alexandr Gulea, the company’s CEO and co-founder.
Tehnoprofil's designed production capacity is 6,000 tyres per year. The plant was established by a local company Palin Construct Srl in 2015 by transferring equipment and
tyres are imported to Moldova annually, of which the share of cheap Chinese tyres is about 40%. After the European Union introduced anti- dumping measures, many Chinese manufacturers set their sights on other markets, and Moldova is no exception," Gulea said.
"Cheap Chinese tyres are our headache and the main competitor since their cost is approximately
The husband and wife management team at Tehnoprofil, Inna Alovatskaia (left) and Alexandr Gulea
production technologies from the former company's plant near Rybnitsa city at Transnistria.
As explained by Gulea, just like many other businesses, the company has been experiencing certain difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The volume of road freight traffic decreased by 10% to 15% in 2020, which had a negative impact on the number of retreaded tyres," Gulea said, adding that there is some blessing in disguise, as in crisis times transport companies are looking for cost-saving solutions.
"On the other hand, for cargo carriers now, every penny counts, and hauliers are more willing to give a second life to their tyres," he said. In 2019, four retreading plants were operating in Moldova. However, the harsh competitive environment has pushed three of them to leave the business.
"Our competitors' closure facilitated the migration of their clients to us," Gulea said, adding that this benefited the company.
Like in many other regions of the world, Moldova's tyre retreaders have had to compete with cheap Asian tyres. Things got worse a few years ago when Chinese tyres were subjected to higher import duties in Europe.
"On average, 50,000 to 60,000 truck
equal to the cost of a retreaded tyre with a premium tread. With the increasing cost of raw materials for tyre production, which currently takes place, we hope to increase the competitiveness of retreading in relation to cheap Chinese brands," said Gulea.
The demand for one-use Asian tyres, however, decreases as cargo carriers become more educated. According to Gulea, every year, an increasing number of transport companies refuse to use these tyres, recognising their poor quality.
Production issues
The other big problem Tehnoprofil has to deal with is a lack of casings. The company has to source all casings on a relatively small domestic market.
"Under Moldovan law, the import of casings is prohibited. Therefore, we are experiencing a severe shortage of casings, which prevents us from selling retreaded tyres in the desired volume. We have to work only with the casings that we collect in Moldova. Because of this, the share of retreading on clients' casing averages 20%," Gulea said.
Casing import into Moldova is prohibited under a law passed 15 years ago due to a large-scale import of used tyres to the country. As
tries to avoid the common term 'tyre welding' as it is an outdated concept. This is the name of retreading from Soviet times when all tyres were retreaded using the hot method. The term is still widespread in the post- Soviet space.
"As in any production, truck tyre retreading is, first of all, a technology, and in our case, it is a cold retreading technology, the compliance with which is a
has rubber crumb as a by-product of its operation, but for Tehnoprofil, it is also a headache since its sale to the nearest countries, including the EU, is accompanied by the problem of obtaining import permits.
"For this reason, we want to use our crumb in the production of rubber coatings, especially since these coatings are popular in Moldova," he added.
22 Retreading Business