Adrian Costache, Commercial Director Europe at Prinx Chengshan Tire Europe, discusses the company’s development plans.
Across Europe’s commercial vehicle sector, fleet and operator expectations have evolved significantly. Today, tyre selection is no longer driven solely by purchase price. Increasingly, the focus is on whole-life tyre cost, sustainability, casing durability, and operational uptime. Prinx Chengshan supports this shift through tangible engineering, disciplined manufacturing, and a retreading philosophy that is becoming a distinctive approach in the commercial tyre market.
A Group Built on Long-Term Commitment
Prinx Chengshan is a global tyre manufacturer celebrating 50 years of industrial heritage, with a rapidly expanding international footprint. The Group operates across passenger car, commercial vehicle, and speciality tyre segments through its brands PRINX, AUSTONE, FORTUNE, and CHENGSHAN, supported by continuous investment in manufacturing capability, R&D, and quality assurance. This commitment is reinforced in Europe through the establishment of the European Tech Centre, created to accelerate product performance development and validation specifically for European operating conditions.
Development has never been limited to the replacement market alone. The Group maintains an established and growing Original Equipment (OE) business, including in commercial vehicle applications, which is an environment that demands strict standards in consistency, casing reliability, and long-term durability. This OE discipline is one of the key reasons the company takes retreading seriously. In commercial tyres, the casing is the foundation of the business case rather than just part of the product.
At Prinx Chengshan, the approach to truck and bus tyre retreading begins at the design stage. Commercial tyres are engineered with the understanding that, in professional fleets, a premium casing should become a long-term operational asset rather than being consumed once.
To achieve this, development focuses on retreadability by design, including reinforced casing structures and bead stability, regroovability to support extended first-life mileage, and controlled manufacturing consistency for predictable inspection outcomes. Furthermore, the company ensures casing integrity across the full lifecycle and establishes strategic retreading partnerships to ensure retread quality matches casing capability. This philosophy is supported by a commercial commitment in the form of an official two-times retread warranty for every eligible casing. This policy reflects a broader market shift toward measurable whole-life value backed by manufacturer confidence.
Why Retreading Matters in Total Operating Cost
For many fleets, tyre cost is still viewed as a single purchase decision, but tyres influence total operating cost far beyond the invoice value. When assessing whole-life performance, the focus remains on cost per kilometre, casing value retention, reduced downtime through consistent wear behaviour, and predictability in maintenance planning. Additionally, sustainability is increasingly linked to customer contracts and compliance requirements.
Retreading remains one of the few technologies that simultaneously improves economics and sustainability. It reduces raw material consumption, lowers end-of-life tyre volumes, decreases CO₂ impact per kilometre, and maximises the return on the original casing investment. With the correct casing and process, the life of a tyre can be doubled or, in certain operations, even tripled.
Product Development with Marangoni S.p.A.
The company has moved beyond warranties by investing directly into product development alongside Marangoni S.p.A. to create a dedicated retread solution aligned with modern European fleet requirements. This led to the launch of a retread programme, starting with the 385/65R22.5 size and using the RTH155 retread pattern. The objective was to ensure that casing and retread design function as a single engineered system, delivering reliability, mileage, and stable performance across multiple lives.
While Marangoni remains a valued partner, Prinx Chengshan’s ambition extends further. The company is actively developing a broader retread platform through collaboration with multiple established retreaders across Europe. This enables wider availability, stronger local service capability, and greater flexibility for different fleet operating models. The goal is to build confidence in the casing and enable fleets to construct long-term tyre strategies around it.
Retreading has always been a rational solution for professional operators, but it only functions effectively when the casing is engineered accordingly, and the manufacturer stands behind the product. Across the commercial brands PRINX, AUSTONE, FORTUNE, and CHENGSHAN, the company offers casings developed for multiple lives, a structured European retread partnership framework, and a formal two-times retread warranty. In the commercial tyre sector, the future belongs to products designed to deliver value repeatedly.
