Page 20 - CTB N11 - 2015-03

RETREADING
RMA Calls for Focus on Retreads as a Premium Solution
casings and the general reduction in the market for retreading is helping push down the price of casings. We need to get the message across that a budget tyre with an A grade label is not the same as a premium tyre with an A
rating.”
With this in mind
the RMA is
rapidly coming
to the
conclusion that
it needs to
support its
members by
increased
lobbying and
activity on the PR
front. “We need to be
more visible to organisations such as the FTA and the RHA,” he says. According to O’Connell plans are now afoot to introduce some changes at the RMA which will address some of these issues.
Despite the current issues affecting the retreading market and the acceptance that retreading is becoming a more
complicated business, O’Connell feels there is still potential for the retreading industry to grow. “The new tyre manufacturers are all investing heavily in retreading, so they
must see a future in it,” he points out. “Of
course, the changes in the
market scenario
means that the RMA needs to work closer
with new tyre
manufacturers and they should
be working closely with us. We also need to
work closer with other trade associations and in particular the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) and the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). The overriding factor for the RMA, though, is that we must begin to promote ourselves as manufacturers of a premium product.”
If you analyse current trends in the tyre retreading market, you might be forgiven for being a little confused. On the one hand the major tyre manufacturers continue to invest in their own retreading facilities and espouse the
package for the company’s fleet customers, but now the Devon based retreader has ceased this activity.
“We came to the conclusion that we were a premium retreader focussing on premium fleet management,” he says.
“We felt that the import of budget new tyres from China was not compatible with this strategy.”
So how does the UK retreading industr y deal with this challenge? Speaking as Chairman of the RMA, O’Connell emphasised that the answer lay in increased efforts on the part of the Association in areas such as lobbying, PR and education. In particular, he emphasises the need
for the Association to lobby for the introduction of tariffs on the import of Chinese tyres.
“The USA has a tariff,” points out O’Connell, “and as a result we are seeing more Chinese tyres coming into Europe at prices which cannot be anything other than subsidised. We believe this is unfair competition.” O’Connell’s plan is to lobby for change through the European Federation of tyre retreading associations, BIPAVER. “This issue affects the whole of Europe,” he says. “If the whole of Europe can push for the introduction of tariffs then there has to be a chance for us to achieve something. It may take two years to come but it’s a possibility worth fighting for.”
O’Connell is also convinced that as retreaders they have to promote premium quality and the whole life cost of the tyre rather than indulge in a free-for- all at the budget end of the market. “But we have to help educate the market about whole life costs,” he says. “It is in the RMA’s interest that there are more premium casings in the market. As things stand, the increased number of Chinese
benefits of following a whole life strategy for effective tyre management. On the other hand, though, the proportion of the replacement market held by retreads continues to fall, and retreaders complain that their profit margins are being squeezed at a time when they are being asked to invest increasing amounts to meet the requirements of impending legislation.
Continued wrangling over fire regulations and the prospect of the introduction of tyre labelling for retreads are certainly two areas of significant concern for the UK retreading industry, but according to Patrick O’Connell, Chairman of the Retread Manufacturers’ Association (RMA), the biggest single problem facing retreaders is the issue of Chinese imports, whose increasingly lower prices continue to affect the market, not only in terms of competition at the budget end of the market, but also in terms of casing prices and availability.
Until recently O’Connell’s own company, Bandvulc, the UK’s largest independent retreader, also imported new tyres from China as part of an overall
Alpine Symbol for Retreaded Truck Tyres on the Horizon
During September 2014 a proposal for a supplement to ECE Regulation ECE 109 was proposed by France according to which it would become possible to test and qualify retreaded truck tyres in order for them to carry the 3PMSF Alpine symbol, which denotes severe winter capabilities. At present retreads are not able to carry this symbol because the conditions for defining this class of tyres are defined under the new tyre regulation UN-ECE R117.
The background to this proposal and the implications for retreaders were discussed during the recent BIPAVER General Assembly in Bologna. Under the proposal applications to carry the Alpine mark will be on a voluntary basis as long as no national laws refer to 3PMSF marked tyres in the context of winter tyre regulations. Individual retreaders wishing to
carry the mark will need to identify which tyres they wish to be defined as Alpine M+S, and apply under a worst-case- scenario system. This will require the provision of a test report for the WCS tyre, a list of relevant sizes to be produced using this pattern, and proof of conformity of production (COP). Four years COP will be required. Manufacturers of pre- cured retreads may refer to test documentations of their material suppliers (if existing) and retreaders producing retread patters both in pre-cure and mould-cure process (with comparable compounds) only need to qualify with one product type.
The proposal is set to be dealt with by the WP29 in June this year. BIPAVER says it is lobbying with a view to minimising the impact of the proposal on retreaders but it has no direct vote in GRRF.
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