Eversafe showcasing their full range of products on their booth, which created a lot of interest from both established and potential customers.
Eversafe Showcases Full Range of Products
As one of South East Asia’s recognised leaders in the production of high quality products and solutions for the retreading sector, Eversafe Rubber Works were not introducing any new products or services at this year’s Singapore show. However, the company were showcasing their full range of products on their booth, which created a lot of interest from both established and potential customers.
During the show Eversafe’s Managing Director Cheah Siang Tee took the opportunity to talk with us and give his opinion on how the local retreading market is performing at the moment. Cheah was keen to put his point across, which does not paint a pretty picture as he firmly believes the retreading sector has been in ‘bad shape’ for the past five to six years with retreading productivity significantly down over this period.
“The main reason for this unfortunate slump in our business is the ongoing influx of tyres from China into the SEA sector which are sold as cheap budget tyres and consequently are of such poor quality that they cannot be professionally retreaded,” he said. “Quite simply these tyres are not fit for retreading purposes in our market as the quality of the casings is just not up to the accepted standard that we insist on in the SEA market.”
However, Cheah pointed out that he definitely did not want to give the impression that Chinese tyre were bad quality, but emphasised that it was just that the SEA retreading market worked at a certain standard which these tyres did not achieve, which in effect was causing a shortage in acceptable casings throughout South East Asia. At the same time price has also been a crucial aspect of the situation as these Chinese tyres are pitched at such a low cost level that the end user can purchase them cheaper than a retreaded tyre, which just adds to the stifling of the SEA retreading market.
Looking to the immediate future, Cheah is confident that the overall volume of retreading production will not go down any further and will remain sustainable at its current level. He concluded, “It is not an ideal scenario, but I do not believe the situation will get any worse, and in my opinion the tyres from China are improving in quality all the time. So, in due course they may be acceptable for our retreading market, which could be enough to ‘kick-start’ our market back up to previous levels.”
永安：优质翻胎胎体短缺，阻碍东南亚市场发展
作为东南亚翻胎领域中生产高品质产品和解决方案受认可的领袖，永安橡胶制造厂在今年的新加坡展会中，并没有展示任何新产品。然而，该公司在其展位上展示了他们的全系列产品，引起客户和潜在客户的注意和兴趣。
董事经理谢双智在展会期间接受了本刊的采访，并告诉我们他对本地翻胎市场的现况和看法。谢双智非常直接地指出，过去的5至6年来，翻胎业的状况不佳，翻胎的生产力大幅下跌。
“大量中国轮胎进口到东南亚是导致这个行业无利可图的主要原因。这些售价非常便宜，质量低的轮胎无法被专业地翻新。它们的胎体不适合翻新，因为其品质达不到我们东南亚市场坚持的水平。”
然而，谢双智指出，他并不想让人因此认为中国的轮胎品质都很差，只是强调说，这些轮胎不符合东南亚翻胎市场的标准，导致整个东南亚地区的胎体短缺。与此同时，价格也是一个关键，因为这些中国轮胎的价格低，终端客户能够以比翻胎更低的价格购买到它们，因此抑制了翻胎市场的发展。
谢双智对未来充满信心，他深信翻胎的产量不会再进一步下跌，并将保持在现有的水平。他总结说：“这不是一个理想的情况，但是我相信不会变得更坏。我认为中国的轮胎品质正不断地改善，相信它们会在适当的时候被我国的翻胎市场接纳，并足于使我们的市场回复到原来的标准。”
