RETREADERS WAIT FOR IMPORT DUST TO SETTLE CHANGES AT BRIDGESTONE

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TPMS: Chrysler Pacifica – 2022

Madison Gehring, Joy Kopcha By

Move All Retreading To Bandag Dealers

The crush of delayed new tire shipments that arrived on shore in late-2022 still has the potential to give U.S. retreaders headaches in 2023. Several retreaders are bracing for a topsy-turvy environment for the year to come.

Activity in the import market has long influenced retreading. When new truck tire prices are low, it can be difficult for

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retreaders to compete on price. When low-cost imports aren’t readily available or when prices are out of whack, retreaders often are able to capitalize on — and market — the endurance and price efficiency of a reusable casing.

So when the truck tire import market is unsteady, it can have a ripple effect on the U.S. retread market.

That’s not universal, of course, and other factors contribute, too.

John Ziegler Jr., vice president of Ziegler Tire & Supply Co., which is based in Massillon, Ohio, says demand remains high for retreading, even though “many customers just prefer a new tire to a retread, even if performance of the retread can meet or exceed (the new tire.)”

Jesse Richards, vice president of sales for CMC Tire Inc., in Hurricane, Utah, says the bulk arrival of imported tires didn’t single-handedly hurt his company’s retread sales. It was the “arrival of import products en masse, coupled with a softening truck tire demand, (that) created significant downward pressure on pricing.

“When this happens, it can change the value proposition of retreading versus purchasing imported product for a fleet, particularly where cap and casing sales are concerned.

“The larger and more forward-thinking fleets have stuck with the formula of purchasing premium tires and expecting multiple retreads. Fleets whose tire decisions are more acquisition-cost driven — or fleets that don’t generate enough of their own casings to sustain a retreading program — are gravitating more toward the import product.”

Richards says CMC Tire was able to “outsell” these effects in 2022 and so far