Page 66 - RB-105-2023-2
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COUNTRY
REPORT - SOUTH AFRICA
- pal. The expertise they can offer to us from an international point of view is a huge plus for us here at the southern tip of Africa,” the spokesperson said.
TRS have taken big steps in the OTR segment with Vipal OTR repair products and its OTR specialist distributor, Nova Tread Africa.
truck tyre retread plants in Sub-Saharan Africa; over and above this, the Vipal line of repairs is distributed to over 160 tyre retail share in the retreading industry at around 55%,” Goosen added.
In addition to South Africa, TRS currently services customers in and Malawi. From Vipal, the company distributes the full line of cu- ring envelopes, curing tubes, innerlopes, and rubber wicking pads. It also sells OTR repair ropes, repair cushion gums and specialised OTR repair vulcanising cement. The company has been more than happy with the quality of all products.
retreaded, that Vipal repair will outlast the retread life; it will come - dently leave the Vipal repair as is, retread the casing again and send it out again. By using a Vipal patch, you have now saved yourself and your customer time and money. This is the advantage of using Vipal repairs,” Goosen said.
LOOKING FORWARD
The outlook for the South African retreading industry for the co- ming years remains uncertain. On the one hand, there is no clarity
as to when the country can overcome the current energy crisis. In addition, some retreading plants have been closed in the country recently. Goosen estimated that 13 plants have shut down their operations lately.
The volumes they used to serve have been distributed among the remaining players, so it might feel that the industry has been growing. However, it would be better to say that the industry is passing through a consolidation stage. Besides, like retreaders in other parts of the world, South African plants have to deal with a lack of skilled workers, though there is no labour shortage in the South African retreading industry like in some other parts of the world.
“The future of retreading lies with us, as we need to start deve- loping more “youngsters” into the industry, especially in South - lists developing due to this,” Goosen said.
start learning about tyres and retreading. Retreading is a form of contributing to the environment, and this fact has to carry wei- ght with working towards a greener future,” Goosen added.
“I wouldn’t call it a labour shortage; I would rather call it a skill shortage, as retreading and repairing tyres is a skill which cannot be taught or learned in only a couple of months. There must be a passion for tyres as well, but as I said, for the majority of youngs- ters in South Africa, the tyre industry and retreading is not high on their skill development options list. Some of our customers have started identifying and adopted skills developing programmes in the retreading sector, and we support this as much as we can, es- pecially when it comes to repairing tyres,” Goosen claimed.
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