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May 02, 2005 02:00 AM

Future bright for retreaders, speakers say

Miles Moore
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    Retreading, a business with an illustrious past, has an equally bright future, according to two retreading company officials at the recent Clemson University Tire Industry Conference.

    "Nine in 10 of the top truck fleets in this country retread," Joseph Zekoski, director of retread systems for Goodyear, said at the event on Hilton Head Island, S.C. "I would say, ´What´s wrong with that last one?´ The casing of a radial truck tire is an investment, and the only way you get a return is to retread it."

    Radialization, which seriously undermined the passenger retreading market, was a boon to the truck tire retreading market, according to Zekoski.

    "It gave us a platform to build on," he said. "Casings lasted longer, and you got more retreads out of them."

    The original equipment truck tire market in the U.S. is 99.8 percent radial, and the aftermarket 91.6 percent, according to Zekoski. Some 16.1 million casings were retreaded last year, and about 39 percent of all wheel positions on truck fleets were occupied by retreads, compared with 46 percent replacement new tires and 15 percent OE new tires.

    "Retreading also offers a recycling benefit," Zekoski said. "Last year, because of retreading, there were 16.1 million fewer casings ready for disposal."

    That one in 10 fleets still resists retreads is probably because too many fleet managers still believe a common myth. "They see rubber on the road and think, ´Darn retreaders don´t know how to put a cap on a casing,´ " he said. He cited studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Technology and Maintenance Council and other sources that identified underinflation as the cause of tire debris in more than 90 percent of all cases.

    The TMC study, Zekoski said, reported 43 percent of truck tires are within 5 psi of their manufacturer-specified inflation pressures. Twenty-two percent of vehicles have at least one tire more than 20 psi underinflated, and 4 percent have at least one tire more than 50 psi underinflated.

    Both retread facilities and truck fleets are consolidating in the U.S., with fewer and bigger entities on both sides, Zekoski said. "The retreaders that survive are the ones that will become sophisticated manufacturing centers. In the foreseeable future, retreads will continue to be integrated with the total wheel position program to fleets."

    Passenger retreading lives on

    Meanwhile, reports of the death of passenger retreading are greatly exaggerated, according to Jeff Barlow, president of Green Diamond North America in Elmira, N.Y.

    Barlow—whose family business, Twin Tier Tire in Elmira, has sold the Iceland-designed Green Diamond remanufactured snow tires since 1999—in mid-February opened a Green Diamond plant in his hometown with an annual capacity of 30,000 tires. Because of the tire´s excellent performance in snow and ability to run well in all seasons, he claims, he can sell it for $15 more than he would charge for a similar new tire.

    The retread industry, according to Barlow, began with passenger retreading during the Great Depression. "An inexpensive alternative to a new tire was desirable, and tread rubber was inexpensive in the Depression," he said.

    World War II provided the greatest impetus to passenger retreading, Barlow said. "Rationing was a part of life, and it was almost impossible for a civilian to buy a new tire," he said, adding that passenger retreading grew 500 percent between 1942 and 1944.

    Passenger retreading reached its peak in the 1950s, with more than 12,000 retreaders in the U.S. by 1959. But industry consolidation reduced that number to 4,800 by 1969, Barlow said. Shortly thereafter, he added, came the real cause for the decline of the passenger retread industry: passenger radials, which were cost-competitive with retreads, lasted much longer than bias tires, and required P-metric sizes which retreaders were unequipped to deal with.

    "Who came up with the idea that a tire should last 80,000 miles?" he said. "For a tire seller, that´s not a good idea, and the tires are still $49.95."

    Twin Tier Tire continued in the passenger retreading business, but gaining a distributorship for the Green Diamond brand was a real boost to the company´s fortunes—such a boost, he said, that he established the factory just to ensure a sufficient supply of the remanufactured snow tires to meet demand.

    "I ordered the tires from Switzerland, Sweden and Quebec, but I could never get enough," he said.

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