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ARNEC PRESENTS THE CASE FOR RETREADING IN LIMA Each country has its own particularities, and the Chilean case for the tyre retreading market is a very complex and difficult one. This is where the president of Arnec, Eduardo Acosta Lancellotti, wanted to take advantage of the invitation received from the Latin American Society of Rubber Technology (SLTC) to present his analysis of the Chilean situa- tion at the recent 3rd Latin American Tyre Recycling Conference, Lima 2023. Daniel Rojas spoke to Acosta about his presentation and posed a number of pertinent questions. INTERVIEW EDUARDO ACOSTA RETREADING BUSINESS How did you prepare and put together your presentation for the conference in Lima? EDUARDO ACOSTA Well, basically I wanted to address the re- asons why, despite the clear environmen- tal and economic benefits, tyre retreads are not massively used, finding tremen- dous differences between countries. I started by reminding the audience what is meant by tyre retreading. I explained its history and where we are now. I also mentioned what types of tyres are fea- sible and economically viable. Then my question was to the audience: “And if all this is so good, why is tyre retreading not promoted and used more?” From my point of view these are the causes: Firstly, the market for tyre retreading is completely governed by the market for new tyres. It should not be forgotten that it is the user who decides which tyres to buy. When we have completely open mar- kets, as is the case on the Pacific coast of South America, Asian truck and bus tyres can cost 35% of a premium tyre. This bru- tal difference has meant that, in this tyre segment, premium tyres hold only 15% of the total market share. Therefore, the va- lue of a tyre retread is very close to the value of an Asian tyre. The facts show that users do not have the incentive to buy premium tyres, let alone reuse them through tyre retreading. On the other hand, although Asian tyres are already quite reliably retreadable, the difference in value in relation to tyre retreading does not provide much incentive to use them either. As a result, many fleets prefer to use cheap new tyres rather than retread their worn carcasses. In contrast, countries on the Atlantic coast of South America retread extensi- vely, with ratios that exceed, or at least equal, new tyres. It should be noted that these are countries with restrictive ba- rriers to the massive entry of Asian tyres. Next, there is the question of how to deal with the plethora of unjustified myths about tyre retreading. Even though we have dealt with the myths surrounding tyre retreading worldwide, there are still actors, from authorities, transport princi- pals, users and especially the public, who believe that tyre retreading is risky, une- conomical and from poor countries. Then there is the issue of cross interests with Producers. Every tyre that is retrea- ded is one less new tyre that is manufac- tured and therefore sold. Manufacturers of premium brands that declare the reuse of tyres as a fundamental principle, often in some Latin American countries, do not take any action that would lead to a real increase in the reuse of tyres. So much so, that in Chile some mining companies pro- hibit the use of retreaded tyres in their logistics service providers, and so far, no- thing has been done to reverse this abe- rrant situation from an environmental and “The EPR Law puts the responsibility for the waste generated on the producers, however, it has been demonstrated that this alone does not produce the necessary incentive for users to increase reuse by retreading tyres.” P.11