Prometec Range Growing Year-on-Year as Retread Market Benefits from China Tyre Import Tariff

For smaller fleets who prefer obscure sizes, the Group has a range of mid-range to premium casings. Bell underlines that a quality retread is only possible with a solid casing, so Prometeon maintains a robust supply chain from UK customer fleets and tyre dealers to maximise the possibility of retreading, although he freely admits that sometimes they may source casings from Europe if they experience a rush of orders.

How Retreading is Experiencing a Renaissance

Echoing other retreaders, Bell indicates that new imported budget tyres have fallen somewhat by the wayside for a large section of fleets, in spite of the economic certainty caused by Covid-19.Operators are more distrustful of budget tyres, “Due to poor mileage performance, stock availability issues and fluctuations in prices,” Bell argues. Equally important, the retreading market has definitely benefited from the tariffs imposed on tyres imported from China. This not only gives the retreading sector a fighting chance of expanding but also helps Promoteon’s Prometec line grow year-on-year.

Equally beneficial for UK retreaders is the current worldwide situation. While the wider supply chain issues that are currently garnering a fair share of headlines, such as import cost increases and the lack of HGV drivers, are significantly damaging the commercial sector recovery, these issues mostly affect budget imports and don’t impact retreaders. For stability, the retread market is finding its niche as a reliable, constant source of security.

What Can be Done to Aid the Retread Market and How Can Independent Retreaders Stay Viable in an Increasingly Challenging Market?

Although fleet managers are on the same page as tyre manufacturers looking for sustainable concepts, Bell believes that if retreads were subject to tyre labelling, this would give the consumer more peace of mind and “allow the customer to make an informed choice on the retread product they have fitted to their fleet.” There’s no doubt in Bell’s mind that retreaded tyres are the key for fleets and firms to reach sustainability targets, however, for the wider market, labelling would ensure that all retreaders are producing high quality products, which means the customer can see a worthy return on investment, helping declassify some of the myths that surround retreads.

Ending a wide-ranging chat, Bell added that independent remould manufacturers play a huge role in sustainability. However, as the larger fleets tend to go with the bigger manufacturers offering competitive rates, independent retreaders have to maintain their niche in the small and mid-sized fleet sectors where dealers still prefer direct communication and a different style of tyre manufacturing service.