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PORTUGAL
Portugal – Navigating Stormy Waters
Portugal, on the edge of the continent, the next landfall to the West is the USA
Nortenha is one of Portugal’s leading tyre distributors and retreaders and is based in Penafiel, East of Braga and Oporto. The company operates in the second most populated area of Portugal and arguably the most industrialised region of the country. Its retread operation covers the whole range of retread options, from passenger car tyres, light truck, commercial, industrial and agricultural through to the largest earthmover tyres.
The company retreads by both hot cure and precure. The passenger, light truck and 4x4 all being hot cure, with a mix on truck, and precure predominantly used on earthmover tyres.
Nortenha is a Kraiburg client and insists on using the best quality materials for its production.
As a quality retreader Nortenha complies with 108/109e for its
car and truck retreading operations. The company tests both its raw materials before production and its retreaded tyres post manufacture.
laboratory tests are carried out to provide quality control of the rubber compounds used in the retreading process. Tests include the same rheometric tests, Mooney viscosity, strength, abrasion resistance, hardness and resilience tests as any new tyre manufacturer would use. Nortenha also laboratory tests its tyres in load / speed tests for car, light truck, commercial and heavy duty tyres (up to a maximum speed of 250 km / h and with a maximum 6 ton load) in accordance with Regulation UN / ECE n. Paragraphs 108 and 109. The tests also include batch testing for balance of the finished tyres.
Portugal is a small European nation, on the edge of the Iberian Peninsula, often overshadowed by its larger neighbour Spain. Yet, Portugal with its 92,090 square kilometre territory, including the Azores and Madeira, is a hub of industry with resources including uranium, iron ore and gypsum. Its 10.8 million population is centred around two large population centres, Oporto and Braga in the North of the country and Lisbon and Setabul in the South. There are of course many ports, and towns in the centre of the country.
In the past transport between the North and South was a long, slow process. However, recent public investments have seen not only many roads widened and resurfaced, but two new motorways stretching from Oporto to Lisbon and down to the Algarve in the South. According to the CIA, Portugal has some 71.294km of paved roads (2,613 of which are motorways) and a further 11,606km of unpaved roads. To put that in context, the UK with a population of around 60 million and a territory of 243,610 sq km has 394,428 km of surfaced roads and only 3,519 km of motorway. Portugal is currently facing difficult economic times, having had to take a European bale out and agree to tight financial strictures, which in turn have virtually stopped all public works, thus the road-building sector and the construction sector in particular are badly hit. This in turn has impacted upon the tyre industry, adding another layer of pressure being laid on the country’s retreading sector.
Retreading in Portugal has been a long standing and widespread practice. However, recent years have seen rationalisation as some companies failed through lack of competitiveness or just poor management. However, increasingly there is a drive towards quality and performance products from retreading, with fleet management becoming the core around which retreading is built. The dialling-in of retreading to whole life costs, led by Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear is driving the more switched on operations to follow with their own tyre management operations. One retreading company that came up several times in conversation as a role model for developing Portuguese retreaders was the UK’s Bandvulc and how well the whole life tyre concept was working for that firm.
The fact that the big tyre manufacturers have entered retreading seriously in recent years has created another pressure point for retreaders. These manufacturers want to control their own casings, and that, where tyre management is in play, takes a huge number of quality casings out of the market,
creating a shortage that cannot be filled by the cheap casings from the many imported Chinese tyres. The upside for the independent retreaders is that there are many second tier tyre manufacturers who do produce quality tyres, who look to compete with the big boys and if they are to offer a whole life offer to their clients, they need to capitalise on the resources and experiences of independent retreaders. (Again,
the experience of Bandvulc is a reference point for many).
The issues facing retreading in Portugal are the same as in most European states, reduced public works and construction,
depressed economy, cheap Chinese tyres and used tyres, and of course tyres being used to the point of unretreadability in cash struck times.
Nortenha: The Source for Kraiburg in Penafiel
20 Retreading Business